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There has been some discussion about the relationship between sustainable development and sustainable tourism, and the need to further explore the relationships between theory and practice. Using grounded theory, this paper reviews new and existing research on Beijing's historic hutong neighbourhoods in relation to the housing, heritage conservation and hutong tourism sectors. Results indicate that sustainability as a theoretical category has at least five extant properties. Sustainability is relative, dynamic, normative, contestable and reflexive. Sustainability is relative in the sense that proponents of different sectors will construct it differently. It is dynamic in the related sense that this construction changes over time. Sustainability is normative because it is value-laden; one important ideal being that a sector should strive to become ever more sustainable. Proponents of different sectors will assert their values, hence sustainability is contestable. Finally, sustainability is reflexive in that the normative ideal may not occur, thus the sustainability of a sector will be reflexive of the nature of its evolving real world development. The paper explores the substance of these properties, together with a review of the several stages through which hutong tourism has passed in its short 20-year life, including the emergence of governance systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]