Daniel Brook
GRANTEE
Daniel Brook is a journalist and author who has reported on architecture and urbanism in the developing world for The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Slate, and in his book, A History of Future Cities.
A New York native and Yale graduate, he lives in New Orleans.
![I was drawn to the Beichuan earthquake memorial because I knew it would be strange but I was not fully prepared for the level of mass tourism on the site. According to a local tourism official I spoke with, fully 3 million domestic tourists a year visit the site. Seeing so many middle-class vacationers in their trendy athleisure clothing with their cameras out walking through a destroyed city was jarring but it was fully intended. The local government hoped that disaster tourism would be a major economic…](/sites/default/files/06-21-17/beichuan_tourists.jpg "I was drawn to the Beichuan earthquake memorial because I knew it would be strange but I was not fully prepared for the level of mass tourism on the site. According to a local tourism official I spoke with, fully 3 million domestic tourists a year visit the site. Seeing so many middle-class vacationers in their trendy athleisure clothing with their cameras out walking through a destroyed city was jarring but it was fully intended. The local government hoped that disaster tourism would be a major economic development tool in the region. Despite the grand plans, however, most tourists visit the ruins as a day trip and stay in larger cities farther away or continue on into the mountains to visit Laojunshan National Park (aka "China's Yellowstone"). Image by Daniel Brook. China, 2015.")
