The post focuses on the use of paid foreign influencers in local tourism promotion, citing a campaign launched by provincial authorities in Hainan, and on the algorithmic weighting that benefits this kind of "positive energy" content. It suggests that visitors’ gushing remarks on camera should be viewed more critically, while calling for attention to context rather than outright dismissal. “What annoys me most," it comments, "is the way a single line of praise from a foreigner is used to paper over our own experience.”
If you scroll Douyin these days, you’ll find a flood of videos from foreign visitors to China.
They marvel at the cheap food, bargain shopping, advanced high-speed trains, and amazing robots.
The people and the cities vary, but the praise does not. It seems like not one of the China trips in my feed ran into any pitfalls.
When we travel ourselves, we know we need to look up guides on pitfalls [e.g. scams, rip-offs, tourist traps etc.] to avoid. So why is it that when foreigners come, these pitfalls are never in the shot?
What I want to know about these tourist videos is who invited them, and who’s footing the bill?
Usually, when people online are on the hunt for "malign foreign influence," even natural disasters are fair game. The 2024 Guizhou wildfires were spun into “arson by Japanese spies”; the 2021 Zhengzhou floods were pinned on “American weather weapons." The former was officially refuted, while meteorologists pointed out that the latter had no scientific basis.
People dared say this kind of thing even without a scrap of evidence. So why is that when a foreigner pops up on our feed spouting fulsome praise of China, it’s not worth asking whether their trip was some promotional partnership?
If you say anything negative [about China], people will question your motives. But if you say only positive things, you somehow get a free pass?
Let’s take a look at some of the spending that’s been made public.
According to a notice from the Hainan Provincial Government Procurement Association, citing the provincial Department for Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports, up to 894,000 yuan [roughly $133,000] was allocated to a "Chasing the Light in the Free Trade Zone • Discover Hainan" project to bring international influencers on cultural junkets to Hainan in 2026.
The project covers invitations to content creators, food and accommodation, transportation, and publicity and promotion. The appendix for the Russian-speaking region specifies that eight foreign creators will post at least 16 one-minute clips to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. There are also arrangements for scripts, camera crew, editing and production.
The notice even spells out how shoots will be organized.
I don’t know if the accounts I’ve scrolled past had this kind of partnership, but once you’ve read about these arrangements, who can blame you for asking, "Did you pay for this trip yourself, or is there a promotional partnership?"
Telling a travel story online doesn’t mean you’ve paid your own way.
There’s a "Party A" [i.e., a paying client] behind positive reviews, too — at least, that’s the case with the promotional junkets described in the notice.
Who sent the invitation, who paid the bills, was there any partnership? As long as it’s clear, that’s fine. The point of these questions is to inform our interpretation of a particular video, not to slap more labels on the vlogger.
In these promotions, the destination wants visitors, the campaign wants numbers, and the vlogger wants exposure, but all the audience sees is a smiling face saying， "China’s awesome!"
But how much of the convenience on this trip would an ordinary tourist get, and how much was special treatment? If I visited the same places shown in the video, would things go as smoothly for me?
As for promoting traffic, don’t just dismiss the issue with, "The platform only pushes more of what you like to watch anyway."
The CAC announced in May 2025 that platforms including Douyin had adjusted their algorithms to focus on, among other things, "weighted recommendation of positive-energy content."
This weighting will change what you see. Why should my recommendations page be considered representative of all foreign tourists?
Content that doesn’t get filmed and content that doesn’t get boosted are two separate things.
What annoys me most is the way a single line of praise from a foreigner is used to paper over our own experience.
He might think food is cheap here, but does that mean I can’t say I think it’s too expensive? He might think a city is modern and developed, but does that mean the hassles I encounter there aren’t worth mentioning?
We’re the ones who work, pay our bills, and spend our lives here. The pitfalls we run into are a lot more concrete than gasps of awe in a video clip.
Rather than telling me to be happy about praise when I can’t see who footed the bill, why not do something to reduce the pitfalls I encounter? [Chinese]