The issue of identity is very complex and determining the factors influencing cultural identity is a key issue. Several scholars have studied the factors influencing cultural identity. However, relatively little attention has been paid to how spatial factors influence cultural identity. This paper takes a historical and cultural conservation block in Beijing, China, as the research area. This area includes eight lanes and is called Eight Lanes in North Xisi. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that spatial changes in living conditions, layout, size, architectural form, and decoration, etc. in the courtyards led to changes in the traditional culture of the courtyards, which ceased to reflect the original residential culture, which led to a decline in cultural identity. Spatial factors directly affected the residents’ cultural identification with harmonious courtyard culture. This view adds nuance to debates about cultural identity and the factors that influence it. From the perspective of cultural geography and by using structural equation modelling, we draw two main conclusions. First, the smaller proportion of public space (The term “space” as it is used in this paper is based on the understanding of humanistic geographers and refers to physical space; it does not acquire meaning and cultures.) is one main factor affecting residents’ identification with the harmonious residential culture of the case area. Second, the greater population density of the courtyards is another main factor affecting residents’ identification with the area’s harmonious residential culture.

Previous research on subway stations has emphasized indexicality, functionality, comfort, aesthetics, etc., while cultural representation has been neglected. Notably, however, cultural representations in subway stations shape the city image and affects residents’ sense of identity and belonging. In particular, cultural representations on the decorative walls of subway stations play a crucial role. Therefore, the following questions can be asked: Do passengers perceive the representational culture in these subway stations? What is the relationship between the cultural representations on the decorative walls in subway stations and commuters’ spatial perception? Using a case study of the Ping’anli station in Beijing, in response to the research conducted by Xu Y.J. and other scholars, and adopting the method of data triangulation performed through content analysis, social media, and questionnaires, this paper analyses whether and how cultural representations on the decorative walls of subway stations affect commuters’ spatial perceptions. This study provides new insights into the influence of cultural representations in subway stations on commuters’ spatial perceptions. The findings reveal that cultural representations on decorative walls in subway stations do not fully align with commuters’ spatial perception. These findings can offer references for urban planning as well as the planning and design of decorative walls in subway stations.

As global sustainability debates increasingly stress the coupling of social power and ecosystem performance, this study examines the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces as a long-term hydrosocial system. Drawing on historical political ecology, we develop a topographic impact model that links terrain-driven water flows with governance nodes and village institutions across successive regimes—native chieftaincy, people’s communes, and the household responsibility system. Using archival sources, gazetteers, policy documents, and secondary literature, we trace how rules of water allocation, lineage- and village-level cooperation, and ritual/managerial authorities jointly stabilized the terraces’ irrigation network and landscape productivity. While recent restoration policies have improved certain biophysical indicators, the fragmentation of social organizations and uneven access to water and land have heightened vulnerability and management costs in some locales. Our analysis identifies strong institutional continuity in coordination logics encoded in the irrigation infrastructure and terrain, which underpins the terraces’ long-run functioning despite regime shifts. We argue that sustainable governance should avoid a simplistic return to tradition; instead, it should rebuild local subjectivity and institutional resilience, revitalize collaborative mechanisms, clarify multi-level rights and responsibilities, and align contemporary incentives with historically proven coordination rules. Embedding historical experience within modern policy design can better sustain this world-heritage cultural landscape as a coupled human–water system.

Urban spaces are constantly changing. H. Lefebvre’s trialectic spaces are an analytical tool used to explain changes in urban spaces. However, in trialectic spaces, which space plays a leading role? What is the driving force of interactions in such spaces? At present, there is a lack of research on this issue. This paper, in response to the views of N. J. Babere, takes the Xisi historical and cultural block in Beijing as a case study to answer these questions and uses questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and follow-up surveys to analyze the interaction process of trialectic spaces within green spaces. Then, it analyzes the driving force of this interaction. The purpose of this study is to determine which space plays a leading role in interactions among trialectic spaces and what the driving force behind such interactions is. This paper draws the following conclusions: (1) Representational spaces play a decisive role in interactions among trialectic spaces.. This is consistent with Babere’s findings. (2) In historical and cultural blocks, culture is the driving force promoting the interaction of trialectic spaces. (3) The direction of interaction among trialectic spaces can be either clockwise or counterclockwise.

Place is seen as a process whereby social and cultural forms are reproduced. This process is closely linked to capital flows, which are, in turn, shaped by changing property regimes. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship between property regimes, capital flows and place-making. The goal of this paper is to highlight the role of changing property regimes in the production of place. Our research area is South Luogu Lane (SLL) in Central Beijing. We take elites’ former houses in SLL as the main unit of analysis in this study. From studying this changing landscape, we draw four main conclusions. First, the location of SSL was critical in enabling it to emerge as a high-status residential community near the imperial city. Second, historical patterns of capital accumulation influenced subsequent rounds of private investment into particular areas of SLL. Third, as laws relating to the ownership of land and real estate changed fundamentally in the early 1950s and again in the 1980s, the target and intensity of capital flows into housing in SLL changed too. Fourth, these changes in capital flow are linked to ongoing changes in the place image of SLL.

Bridges play positive roles in the process of place development. Bridges affect changes in place images, which, in turn, are shaped by changing capital flows. Place image and place identity are intertwined. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship among capital flows, place image, and place identity. This paper takes San Jiadian (SJD) village in Beijing as a case study and the Yongding River bridges around SJD as the main units of analysis. This paper aims to explain how the bridges influence the formation and change of place images during different historical periods and to provide a Chinese case for the relationship among capital flows, place image, and place identity. We draw the following conclusions. The change in the ownership of the bridges led to a change in capital flows to the bridges and the village, thereby leading to a change in the place image. Moreover, the new place image weakens the place identity of the villagers. The villagers’ place identity should be considered for a place’s new development direction and changes in the place image.