Scenic Spots: Chinese Tourism, the State, and Cultural Authority, by Pill Nyiri. A China Program Book. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2006. xii, 134 pp. $40.00 US (cloth), $22.50 US (paper).

At present, commercial tourism is the biggest business in the world, with profits that

equal or even surpass those of oil exports, food products, or cars. Pal Nyiri deals with the People's Republic of China's domestic tourist industry, which has developed only since the 1990s and is currently booming. It is built around "scenic spots" (mingsheng), which are steeped in Chinese traditional culture because they are based upon a "national" canon of cultural places as described in the travel writings of Chinese literati and gazetteers. The way Chinese tourists experience these "scenic spots," however, is largely shaped by the state's interpretations and representations of Chinese culture. On the whole, the government uses "the spot business" (which also includes museums, zoos, and numerous theme parks) for patriotic education and the modernization of the nation. Though most tourism development projects are joint ventures between representatives of the state and private investors (being allegedly a business, often managed by an official cum entrepreneur, registered abroad and thus eligible for tax incentives) in which government agencies invest no money, but keep veto power. Therefore, Nyiri rightly emphasizes that the state's decisive influence distinguishes Chinese domestic tourism from its Western counterpart.

During the Cultural Revolution countless cultural sites (especially temples) were destroyed, and in recent years many buildings had to be restored, or often completely built anew. Also, "scenic spots" have become intensely commodified with shops, cultural shows, and tour-guides. According to Nyiri, the rebuilding and commodification of China's cultural sites goes against the idea of the "authentic" and the fear of commodification that underlie Western tourism. For the Chinese state, nonetheless, tourism is, above all, an important source of income that can boost the country's modernization, mainly through the construction of the necessary infrastructure. At the dark side, the majority "Han" Chinese, who generally run the "spot business," brutally eject the locals at tourist sites in the name of progress. These locals, in fact, often are ethnic minority people, who in the eyes of the Han Chinese are "filthy," "backward," and incapable of developing tourism. During the Olympics in Beijing next year, the "Central Kingdom" will present itself to the world as a power to be reckoned with. Thanks to the state's propaganda machine, however, many Chinese already believe the country soon will be the most powerful nation in the world. Domestic tourism feeds this national self-image, Nyiri argues, because it makes Chinese tourists see "scenic spots" in terms of an imagined global hierarchy ("China's ancient history," or "the world's largest Buddha," for example). In the unfortunately too brief fourth and last chapter, Nyiri discusses Chinese outbound tourism (in guided package groups with a special visa). Like most tourists elsewhere, Chinese abroad Overall consume their experiences in terms of their own culture. In their case, this particularly means spotting modernity and visiting a specific canon of "scenic spots." Hence, for many of them, Europe simply is a big open-air ethnological museum with shops attached and, moreover, like in the instance of inland tourism of "Han" Chinese to "minority" areas, an affirmation of the superiority of China's modernity and culture.

With mass tourism being such an important player in today's world economy, Nyiri could have extended his argument about tourism, power, and national identity politics towards the world of empire (in other words, mass tourism as "imperial gaze"). For example, is Chinese outbound tourism really that different from the Western "spot business" since ,imperial" times (Thomas Cook, Rome, Athens, Paris, and worldwide "classic" destinations such as the Victoria Falls, Taj Mahal, Egyptian pyramids, and Orient Express)? Is contemporary Chinese tourism really more commodified than its Western equivalent? Is the idea of the "authentic" in Western tourism not an imperialist and therefore patronizing (but equally commodified) stereotype? Is the supposedly alternative travel scene among young Westerners (as in the Lonely Planet Travel Guide), with which Nyiri obviously sympathizes, simply not a less commercial and more Romantic version of the Western imperial "spot business"? For Chinese tourists visiting my hometown, Amsterdam (the Netherlands), there already is an itinerary of "scenic spots" (such as a statue of Rembrandt next to a windmill which formerly was never there and where no local goes, but where busses can easily park) and a network of hotels, restaurants, shops, and massage parlours. Even so, the same Chinese tourists are incorporated in the existing Dutch "spot business," which includes, besides such state-subsidized institutions as the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, a "Chinese" mixture of sites ranging from the Anne Frank House to Madame Tussauds and the Heineken Factory. Alternately, during recent years numerous Dutch tourists went in package tours (including Dutch-speaking tour leaders and Chinese local guides) to China, where they undeniably see much "authentic" and do a lot of shopping on the way.

All in all, Scenic Spots is a fascinating and cogently written short introductory book on Chinese tourism that brings up many questions for further study. Also it is a timely book because China soon will be the first tourist destination of the world. Moreover, the World Travel Organization estimates that in 2020 the country will have the largest number of outbound tourists in the world.

Bob van der Linden

University of Amsterdam