The objectives of this research are to understand the use of traditional houses, to identify the associated tourism impact from the standpoint of maintaining houses in the World Heritage Site, the Old Town of Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China. This is part of an investigation of the problems related to the rapid development of tourism and its pressures on the Old Town of Lijiang, focusing on the use of traditional houses.
The findings revealed that the following three points were influencing the transformation of the use of traditional houses.
1) The place transformation of each function, such as living, guest room, and etc. in the traditional houses.
2) The area transformation of each function, such as living, guest room, and etc. in the traditional houses.
3) The social transformation surrounding the traditional houses in the Old Town of Lijiang.
