Competition is fierce for professional photographers in Beijing’s tourist hotspots, including a picturesque lake where women in flowing traditional clothes pose for photos to share on Xiaohongshu, China’s massively popular lifestyle app.
The platform, which is said to be preparing to go public later this year, has shaken China’s tourism industry, where domestic travel is booming at record levels.
Known as RedNote in English, Xiaohongshu’s interface is similar to American social network Pinterest, but is sometimes called “China’s Instagram” as users can post photos, videos and even live streams.
Travelers use the app to discover new destinations and plan their itineraries around photogenic locations, such as the lake in the capital’s historic Shichahai area – one of many “daka” or “check-in” points where Xiaohongshu is making even more stops.
On a recent Monday, photographer Li Geng, 18, stood with a camera slung around her neck, advertising her services to wandering tourists, who pay her 10 yuan ($1.47) per photo.
Meters away, other photographers shouted instructions to bejeweled young women, who held up their fingers in victory signs and arched their backs for the camera.
Li told AFP that many of her competitors have a significant presence on social media, including one that has 45,000 followers on Xiaohongshu and demands lower prices for photos.
This has led to “more customers flocking to him putting a lot of pressure on the rest of us”, she said.
In contrast, Li, who does not have a large online following, can “only rely on calling people on the street to get customers.”
Travel inspiration
Domestic travel in China hit a record last year, Xinhua news agency reported in March, with trips by residents topping 6.5 billion, up more than 16 percent from a year ago.
Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu’s user base has grown to 350 million monthly active users, data analytics platform Qiangua said in May, up from 300 million a year ago.
The app has boosted lesser-known businesses and sent tourists in droves to unconventional places like Zibo, a quiet industrial town in Shandong, after its cheap, marinated barbecue skewers went viral.
Xiaohongshu is now the first place “many young travelers” look to for inspiration, said Ming Yii Lai, senior strategy consultant at Daxue Consulting.
Tourist Mina Chen, visiting the Shichahai area with her sister, had planned her trip to Beijing using the recommendations of other Xiaohongshu users.
Searching for keywords known as “citywalk” on the app brought up the day’s itineraries, including where to eat and convenient routes from one attraction to another.
“Now it is necessary (for me),” the 20-year-old student from Hunan province told AFP.
“TikTok Refugees”
The journey run by Xiaohongshu has caused problems including over-tourism on viral spots and businesses becoming too dependent on the platform’s traffic, Lai told AFP.
Paid posts by food bloggers “who sing the praises of shops or destinations” have also drawn complaints when their recommendations are disappointing.
The app received global attention 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 for its preparations to confidentially file for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, according to media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, which said its market debut could be as early as late 2026.
AFP has contacted Xiaohongshu for comment.
Young women in wealthier cities remain the app’s main user base, according to Qiangua.
But it’s 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 big difference” in viewing travel content about China on the app compared to other platforms such as YouTube, 58-year-old Phua told AFP.
“If we want to know what it’s really like in China” and what locals like to do, eat and go, “Xiaohongshu has a lot of content,” he said.
Meng Jiaxuan, 20, dressed in her traditional dress in Shichahai, said she also researched poses for her photo shoot in Xiaohongshu.
“No matter what it is, I just look for it in Xiaohongshu,” she said.
