本文主要目的是探討晚明旅遊活動與消費文化的特點。首先，我們可以看到晚明的旅遊活動呈現高度的商品化與市場化的傾向，這可以從旅遊相關書籍的刊行、旅遊交通與食宿的商品化、導遊以及套裝行程的出現等現象反映出來。 其次，晚明旅遊風氣的興盛已經從上階層蔓延到社會大眾，由此可見旅遊活動的普及性。此外晚明的旅遊活動強調的是舒適性與娛樂性，這可以說是另一個特點。 再者，晚明興盛的旅遊消費算不算是過度的奢侈浪費，一度成為人們爭論的議題。然而也在此時有人由旅遊消費出發，重新檢討傳統奢侈的經濟觀念，正視旅遊消費所帶來的正面作用。 晚明出現許多旅遊論述如「雅俗」、「遊道」、「遊具」等等，有許多是士人階層所創發，特別是以文學著名的文士；在這些旅遊論述中反映了他們將旅遊與身分地位聯繫在一起，並且極力想塑造新的旅遊品味，以區分其與大眾旅遊不同的心態。 在結論中，筆者將晚明的旅遊與同時期西歐的旅遊活動略作比較，以重新定位中國的旅遊文化在歷史上的地位。從前述的比較與分析可知，就旅遊業（tourism）與消費社會（consumer society）在前現代發展而言，中國實不亞於西歐。而且晚明的旅遊消費文化的確在相當程度上，與現代性的消費文化特點是相吻合的。

　　　　　This paper investigates the development of travel and the consumer culture that surrounded it in the late Ming period. By this time, travel had become commercialized and market-oriented, as seen in the increasing composition and publication of travel books, new modes of transportation, and the thriving business of providing lodgings. Tourist guides and package tours demonstrate that travel became a new fashion that was widespread not only among upper and lower gentry, but also included travel for pleasure by commoners. Moreover, travelers placed great emphasis on comfort, which thus also marks a distinguishing feature of travel during late Ming. The new fashion for travel gave rise to an important debate. Although some gentry criticized it as a wasteful and decadent form of consumption, others noted its useful economic effects. The final section of this paper explores the mentalities of the late-Ming gentry through an examination of their discourse about travel. Some gentry clearly associated travel with social status, and sought to define new tastes in travel that would distinguish their travel culture from that of commoners. Taken as a whole, this paper suggests that the tourism specifically and a consumer society more broadly developed in China at least as early as in Western Europe, if not earlier. Furthermore, some features of the consumer culture of travel during late Ming indeed corresponded to the characteristics of consumer culture commonly associated with “modernity.”