沈從文在他的都市小說中，將特定的生活方式與寫作方式結合為都市漫遊者的空間實踐，在這過程中，作者與他的自傳性／半自傳性人物通過在人群之中的散步及冥想，將都市景觀及空間形象虛幻化、模糊化。相反，都市中下層人生活的破落地域，卻以一種「鄉村」品質更吸引沈從文的溫情想像，他甚至將這種鄉村品質與中國特性相提並論。地域性與國族性的關聯表述，在沈從文的《阿麗思中國遊記》中表現得至為激進，該書以外國人尋找純正之中國為線索，呈現了上海都市與湘西鄉土兩種不同的中國面貌，敘述者以其強烈的主觀性引導讀者把湘西認同為最純正的中國之鄉。這無疑表達了沈從文將最地域化的鄉土演變為最民族性的國土的一種野心。沈從文的都市小說，尤其《阿麗思中國遊記》，以國族想像為名，通過城、鄉之漫遊，一再回到他地域性的鄉土想像。

In his urban fiction, Shen Congwen creates autobiographical or semi-autobiographical characters by combining the particular way of his daily life and writing career. Such kind of characters walks in the crowd of the urban street and gets lost in his various fancies like an urban flâneur. In Shen Congwen's imagination, urban landscape is unreal and fuzzy; however, the run-down area of city in where the poor people lives is much more attractive because it looks like his Xiangxi hometown in some way. Shen Congwen even regards the run-down area in city and countryside as the most ”Chinese” place and so to associate the regionality with nationality, and such point of view is clearly expressed in his novel ”Alice's Adventures in China”. In this book, Alice, as a foreigner, looks for a ”pure” China in Shanghai city and Xiangxi country separately. Shen Congwen describes Xiangxi as the most regional and national place at the same time, so to lead readers to accept that Xiangxi is the most pure China Alice is looking for. My conclusion is that Shen Congwen's urban fiction, especially ”Alice's Adventures in China”, keeps on turning back to his regional/rural imagination by the way of the character's wandering between urban city and countryside.