《游观江南图》(局部)：清代名士徐扬笔下，描绘了乾隆年间（1736-1759）苏州繁华景象。常言道：“读万卷书不如行万里路”，扩展视野、体验异地历史文化，是物质生活富足的香港人的向往，每逢假期，赤柱及罗湖等口岸总是人山人海。
自七八十年代经济起飞，旅游业在香港兴旺发达，世界各地的旅行团、生态旅游、学生游学团等推销广告五花八门，有时候令人眼花缭乱。很多人都以为旅游是现代产业，但意外的是，在明清时期，旅游活动已经相当兴盛。
文化讲座“明清时期游观与建构”是巫仁恕博士近作《明清时期的游观及其建构》的浓缩版，他选取几个有趣面向分享研究心得。他说：“在现代旅游业诞生之前，中国历史上就有各种各样的旅游活动，即使到了明清时期，这些活动也具有类似现代旅游业的现代性特征。平民百姓热衷于‘游观’形容这类活动，而带动这一风气的是士大夫，他们将‘游观’文化融入自己的生活中。”
若将明清时期的游观放在世界史脉络中，与十六至十八世纪西方先驱相比较，更能突显晚明时代在历史上的特殊地位。
巫仁恕曾任兼职讲师，现在中央研究院近代史研究所副研究员暨南国际大学历史系兼任副教授，其研究领域为城市史和社会文化史。
农民生活圈超出“村”的范围
元宵节、中秋节等岁月日子，一些江南城市内城郊发展出许多聚集点，比如装饰精美画舫载客去欣赏秦淮河。在此基础上，巫博士引用了钱泳《履园丛话》中的描述秦淮河歌舞声色的一番话：
自然界充满了艺术与诗意。
此外，还有园林活动，如苏州这些著名园林通常会在春天开放一个月，并形成市集，使得苏州春天的园林内外“游人如蚁”。
庙会节庆显示多样化、频繁化及普及化，有些地区发展到以城镇为中心，将城乡紧密联系在一起的巡会节庆，如《吴社编》中记载了苏州祭祀五通神“五方贤圣会”。
还有一种习俗叫做解钱粮，即市镇附近信仰村庙的人们，在诞辰节庆时要纳铜钱或纸币，并抬神像到市镇参拜。这反映出了小农经济与市场关系加深，以及农民日常生活圈超越“村”的范围，大规模巡会让乡村大众可以参加数天旅程。
明清 tourism infrastructure's commercialization development
Travel guides, travel commentaries, and even travel packages were all available in the Ming dynasty. The development of these facilities was quite mature, despite the passage of time. The operating methods of these tourist facilities are similar to those of modern industries.
Temples, restaurants, wine shops, pavilions, and other establishments provided accommodation and food services for tourists. The combination of tourism with the food industry led to a demand for special dining boats on pleasure ships. These boats had dining equipment such as sandalwood tables and fire-cooking stoves; they also had entertainment facilities like floating theaters with female performers.
In addition to package tours (where groups traveled together), there were also pilgrimage tours (where people traveled together to visit temples). For example, travelers could join a group going on a pilgrimage tour at any stage by paying one silver coin equivalent to 0.1 ounce of tea or rice; this would cover meals for two days plus transportation costs back and forth.
The Western perception of Chinese tourism infrastructure
During their initial visits to China in the 16th century, Jesuit missionaries wrote about their amazement at China's well-maintained roads and comfortable riverboats used for traveling between cities. They noted that sedan chairs were much more comfortable than European carriages but criticized Chinese shipbuilding techniques as old-fashioned.
By the 18th century when British diplomats visited China again after years' separation from Europe since Qing Dynasty began in 1644 AD., they noticed that although roadways seemed tidy enough without being particularly outstanding compared with Britain's own improvements during industrial revolution era which started around late eighteenth century while still maintaining no significant breakthroughs in naval engineering technology over centuries - "the roads may be smooth but not exceptional," they said - however they felt that some aspects did stand out: it was observed how many fine houses stood along them." And so forth...
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