Tourists flock to locations featured in hot TV shows

Popular television series set in some of China's most breathtaking locations are inspiring a recent tourism trend with a quirky name — not jet-setting, but "set-jetting".

Throngs of tourists are seeking out the exact locations where iconic scenes from TV shows are set, and then jetting to them to take photos or re-create the scenes for themselves.

The TV series The Litchi Road, adapted from the 2021 novel bearing the same name, tells the story of Li Shande, a Tang Dynasty (618-907) official who was given the "impossible task" of transporting fresh lychees over 8,000 kilometers to the ancient site of Chang'an in Shaanxi province, not far from modern-day Xi'an.

Locations along the route, stretching from Guangdong province in the south to sites in central and northern China, have reported significant increases in tourist numbers since the launch of the TV series earlier this year.

Chen Yingwu, 31, from Hunan province, which neighbors Guangdong, put his passion for lychees and for the hit TV show together to embark on a tour in July.

"I'm a lychee person. It's my favorite fruit in the summertime. I'd seen some short videos showing the crystal-like freshness of the lychees in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, and was touched by the story in the TV series The Litchi Road, so I spent the weekend with my wife traveling to Guangzhou," Chen said.

"It was not the perfect time, as we missed the best of the harvest for many varieties of lychee. But we still managed to find some fresh and delicious lychees at a much cheaper price than in our hometown," he said, adding that the TV series "provided some great inspiration for traveling".

Luoyang, in Central China's He-nan province, has also received a boost from the hit historical romance In the Name of Blossom, which has just finished airing and is a sequel to Flourished Peony. The two TV series tell the Tang Dynasty story of He Weifang, the daughter of a merchant, who, though skilled in cultivating rare peonies, becomes entangled in love and politics.

To capitalize on the popularity of the TV series, the city of Luoyang launched some themed activities re-creating scenes in the show after the release of Flourished Peony in January. The city will add more activities this summer to ride the wave of the sequel and to attract more people to experience the cultural vibes of the ancient Tang Dynasty, a city official said.

Experts have suggested that more locations featured in hit TV shows should improve the locations' infrastructure facilities and enrich the tourism experience to turn the instant fame into sustainable popularity.

Other locations that have benefited from recent TV shows include Dali in Southwest China's Yunnan province, which became a top tourist destination after being featured in the 2023 series Meet Yourself, starring Liu Yifei and Li Xian, and Altay in Northwest China's Xin-jiang Uygur autonomous region, which experienced a tourism craze last year following the airing of the series To the Wonder.

"Good television series are an important tourism promotion channel for shooting locations, showing the locations' natural beauty and cultural sites. The plots of these shows can also give audiences a stronger sense of presence than regular tourism advertisements, and can spark people's interest in traveling there," said Zhang Jinshan, a tourism planning and development researcher at Beijing Union University.

Qi Chunguang, vice-president of the travel portal Tuniu, said, "A fascinating television series, or a story that touches people's hearts, or even a beautiful photo or short video can ignite people's interest in exploring a place."