Tim Oakes’ (1998) concept of touristic modernity accurately describes how the Chinese national discourse surrounding tourism, as both a tool for economic growth and nation-building, has shaped what the local reality has become for many towns and villages in the peripheral regions of China, especially those with large populations of ethnic minorities. Specifically in the Dali Bai Autonomous Region, foreign tourism followed by nostalgia-fueled domestic tourism has transformed Dali into a commercialized tourist destination, which has begun to spill out to other towns around the lake such as Xizhou. Touristic modernity is not, however, a singular homogenous force that culturally and physically transforms a given location overnight; instead, the construction of touristic modernity is a process that involves multiple contributing actors. In Xizhou, where the construction of touristic modernity is in its beginning stages, three main actors who are contributing to this process can be identified: domestic tourists, the Linden Centre, and local people
