Spatial distribution of traditional village is the key factor for the sustainable development of rural tourism. Analyzing distribution characteristics and development conditions of traditional villages have profound implications for rural revitalization and all-for-one tourism. Firstly, this research introduced the characteristics and historic value of traditional villages in each region of Shaanxi province. Secondly, this paper analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of 323 provincial-level traditional villages by using the method of quantitative geography through geographic information systems (GIS). Then, according to spatial type division, this research divided the spatial distribution of rural tourism in Shaanxi province into five areas, including linear tourist area, facial health area, distributed leisure area, low-density scenic area, self-driving tourist area. Finally, this paper summarized the development conditions of rural tourism in Shaanxi’s traditional villages and took case studies. The natural environment, social economy, and historical culture are crucial conditions for the sustainable development of traditional villages, influencing the spatial distribution of these villages. This paper summarized the spatial distribution of rural tourism development and proposed a guide for future space planning and construction for all-for-one tourism in other areas through empirical research on spatial distribution. Meanwhile, this research provides new ideas for rural revitalization.

China’s research on and specific implementation of energy saving for buildings are mainly concentrated in urban areas, but according to 2016 statistics, the rural population accounts for 42.65% of the total population, so rural housing has considerable energy-saving potential. However, the degree of attention to the energy consumption of rural houses needs to be improved. Regarding the research on and implementation of passive energy-saving strategies for residences, compared with centralized urban high-rise residences, rural residences mainly have independent courtyards, with a flexible layout and easier transformation. In this study, a system that uses the common cold lanes in traditional villages and buildings’ exterior walls was constructed, and the indoor spaces of courtyard buildings in southern Shaanxi were completely passively cooled in summer. This system can be completely separated from the supply of artificial energy by relying on the accumulation and buoyancy effects of air in patios and cold lanes and the hot-pressure ventilation in buildings to cool the buildings and greatly improve indoor ventilation efficiency. As the building is ventilated and cooled, the air wall formed in the system can effectively prevent direct contact between the outdoor and indoor temperatures and reduce the impact of thermal wall radiation on the interior. In previous studies on the passive design of courtyard houses, scholars considered the effect of thermal wall radiation on indoor temperature in simulations. Therefore, in this study, we also separately calculated whether to consider the difference between the situation with and without wall heat radiation (WHR) when simulating thermal conversion. The final results show that when the cooling system was adopted, the annual cooling load of the whole building was 4786.494 kW·h without WHR. However, with WHR, the cooling load reduction was 2989.128 kW·h, a difference of 1797.336 kW·h.

Rural areas in China play a significant position in society, with traditional dwellings reflecting local culture and lifestyles. However, the energy consumption of these dwellings has not been thoroughly quantified, despite their importance in the low-carbon energy conservation efforts. This study explores the influence of key design elements—such as orientation, plan form, window-to-wall ratio, and roof slope—on the energy consumption of rural dwellings. Using the Wallacei-X multi-objective optimization algorithm, we analyze the energy consumption of various dwelling layouts. The findings suggest that a design with a N-W60°, a plan length of 10.8 m, a width of 8.9 m, a window-to-wall ratio (WWR-E) of 0.2, and a roof slope of 5° can reduce annual energy consumption by approximately 5.59%. Sensitivity analysis reveals that the window-to-wall ratio on the east side (WWR-E) has the greatest influence on energy efficiency, followed by other design factors. This research offers valuable insights into low-energy solutions for rural dwellings in the Qinba Mountain region.

There have been many studies that have only focused on factors affecting the spatial distribution of rural settlements, without paying attention to their function and scale. China’s mountainous rural area has many problems, such as a fragile ecological environment, poor infrastructure and limited public service facilities. As a result, mountainous rural settlements demonstrate a disorderly and scattered layout. This research takes southern Shaanxi as its research area and uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to analyze the field survey data, revealing the spatial format of rural settlements and its influencing factors. The research results show that: (1) The spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized as falling into three types—agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The individual settlements are discrete, and the spatial structure of the settlement groups exhibits small-scale clustering in a large area. (2) The influencing factors of spatial structure are ranked thus—geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale. (3) The number of settlements in the study area is constantly decreasing, and their boundaries are gradually shrinking, showing randomly distributed characteristics. (4) A radius of 284.12 m can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village to control the scope of settlement construction. The objective of the research is to classify the spatial structure and propose the most optimal spatial mode in mountainous rural areas.

Slate dwellings are known as the “living fossil of primitive dwellings” in China. Energy-saving strategies are crucial to slate dwellings for sustainability as well as maintaining thermal comfort. In this research, a subjective satisfaction analysis on the indoor thermal environment in Daziliang village, China, was conducted. It was found that neutral temperature is 20.92 °C in summer, 8.92 °C in winter, and the actual operating temperature in winter is too low to meet the 80% acceptable range. Therefore, a series of improvement strategies in winter were proposed. The results showed that adding external thermal insulation material—expanded polystyrene board with a thickness of 80 mm on the roof and outside walls—and sunspace depth of 1.5 m are better in terms of energy-saving effects. In addition, the slate dwelling’s daily energy-saving rate of the heating day is 44.26% lower than the original state through these strategies. The air temperature of Bedroom D in winter non-heating days increases by 3.82 °C after improvement and the mean radiant temperature increased by 2.54 °C. Our approach puts forward specific energy-saving improvement measures and provides feasible suggestions for the protection and development of slate dwellings in this area.