‘Indispensable’ Xiaohongshu app fuels Chinese tourism

Competition is fierce for professional photographers at Beijing’s tourist hotspots, including a scenic lake where women in flowy traditional robes pose for snaps to share on Xiaohongshu, China’s massively popular lifestyle app.

The platform, which is reportedly preparing to file to go public as soon as this year, has shaken up the tourism industry in China, where domestic travel is booming to record levels.

Known as RedNote in English, Xiaohongshu’s interface is similar to the US social network Pinterest, but it is sometimes nicknamed “China’s Instagram” as users can post photos, videos and even livestream.

Travellers use the app to discover new destinations and plan their itineraries around photogenic locations, like the lake in the capital’s historic Shichahai area — one of many “daka” or “check-in” spots where Xiaohongshu is driving even more footfall.

On a recent Monday, photographer Li Geng, 18, stood with a camera slung across her neck, touting her services to wandering tourists whom she charges 10 yuan ($1.47) per photo.

Metres away, other photographers yelled instructions to ornately dressed young women who held their fingers in victory signs and arched their backs for the camera.

Li told AFP many of her competitors have a significant social media presence, including one who has 45,000 followers on Xiaohongshu and charges lower prices for photos.

That has caused “more customers to flock to him while putting a massive amount of pressure on the rest of us”, she said.

In contrast Li, who has no big online following, can “only rely on calling out to people on the street to get customers”.

– Travel inspiration –

Domestic travel in China hit record highs last year, Xinhua news agency reported in March, with trips by residents exceeding 6.5 billion, up more than 16 percent on-year.

Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu’s user base has grown to 350 million monthly active users, data analysis platform Qiangua said in May, from 300 million a year earlier.

The app has boosted lesser-known businesses and sent tourists in droves to unconventional locations such as Zibo, a quiet industrial city in Shandong, after its cheap, marinated barbecue skewers went viral.

Xiaohongshu is now the first place “a lot of younger travellers” seek inspiration, said Ming Yii Lai, senior strategy consultant at Daxue Consulting.

Tourist Mina Chen, visiting the Shichahai area with her sister, had planned her Beijing trip using recommendations from other Xiaohongshu users.

Searching popular keywords like “citywalk” on the app brought up itineraries for the day, including where to eat and convenient routes from one attraction to another. 

“It is now indispensable (to me),” the 20-year-old student from Hunan province told AFP.

– ‘TikTok refugees’ –

Xiaohongshu-driven travel has caused issues including overtourism at viral spots and businesses becoming too dependent on platform traffic, Lai told AFP.

Paid posts from food bloggers “who sing high praises about shops or destinations” have also drawn complaints when their recommendations are disappointing.

The app took the global spotlight last year when a proposed US government ban on the social media platform TikTok sent American users, dubbed “TikTok refugees”, flocking to RedNote.

And it has made headlines in recent weeks over its preparations to confidentially file for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, according to outlets including the Wall Street Journal, which said its market debut could be as early as the end of 2026.

AFP has contacted Xiaohongshu for comment.

Young women in more affluent cities remain the app’s core user base, according to Qiangua.

But it is also gaining traction with Chinese speakers in countries like Malaysia and Singapore — and not just among young women.

Singaporean retiree Ernest Phua turned to Xiaohongshu to plan trips to Guangdong and Yunnan in China, searching for “travel strategy” in Mandarin to find recommendations.

There is “a great difference” viewing travel content about China on the app compared to other platforms like YouTube, 58-year-old Phua told AFP.

“If we want to know what it is really like in China” and what locals like to do, eat and go to, “Xiaohongshu has lots of content”, he said.

Meng Jiaxuan, 20, dolled up in her traditional outfit at Shichahai, said she had even researched poses for her photoshoot on Xiaohongshu.

“No matter what it is, I just search for it on Xiaohongshu,” she said.