Spatial Narrative Planning for Cultural Heritage Tourism: A Case Study of Zhengding Ancient City

Addressing weak spatial support for heritage interpretation in historic districts, this study develops a spatial narrative planning framework using Zhengding Ancient City as a case. Its case-based contribution is to connect visitor-rated tourism experience and expert-rated historical–cultural value with node grading, overlapping thematic planning extents and differentiated route proposals. Functional classification and semantic differential evaluation inform node grading; topological steps and metric distances define thematic extents; and local Integration (R = 500 m) identifies internal core areas, while local Choice supports visitor-route planning. The inventory contains 25 unique narrative nodes. The proposed Religious Affairs route forms a linear backbone approximately 3253 m long. The Religious Affairs cluster has the highest historical–cultural score, whereas Public Affairs has the highest tourism-experience score; Residential Life is spatially fragmented, and Urban Defense shows a south–north contrast. These findings support different planning priorities across themes and connect site evaluation with area and route organization.