China Haul: The New China Travel Experience — Empty Suitcases In, Full Suitcases Out

The news

For most of 2026, "China Travel" meant the scenery videos. The newest chapter is quieter, stranger and very practical: tourists are flying in with empty suitcases and flying out with them stuffed. On October 19, both Beijing Review and People's Daily ran deep looks at the trend behind it — "China Haul" on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, where visitors unbox what they bought in China and tell their followers what to grab.

The numbers behind it are large. Foreign nationals made 61.29 million border crossings in the first eight months of 2026, up 19.5 percent year on year; visa-free entries reached 23.72 million, up 26.8 percent. The details are the story too. Marc Lambert, a Belgian tourist, arrived with one suitcase and checked in two — packed with AI translation glasses from Shenzhen, a China Chic jacket from Chengdu, herbal skincare and three boxes of black sesame balls from an old Shanghai pharmacy. "Next time, I'm bringing three empty ones," he told Beijing Review. Around him, "three suitcases per person" has become the standard loadout for a China trip.

What travelers are actually buying

The old souvenir list was tea, silk and panda plushies. The new one reads like a tech-store receipt: pocket gimbals, AI glasses, foldable phones, action cameras — plus designer toys from Pop Mart, China Chic apparel, herbal soaps and moxibustion kits.

The content proves it sells. A Ghanaian creator tested a robot dog at Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei electronics market; the video had passed 740,000 YouTube views by mid-October. Food account "Oh Yummy" walked into a Changsha snack shop and called China a "snack paradise" — the video surpassed 3 million views. Grace Mondlana's unboxing video pulled in more than 500,000 likes. A British sneaker vlogger tried Chinese running shoes in Guangzhou's Dongshankou and was genuinely surprised by the design.

Where to shop

• Shenzhen — Huaqiangbei for electronics: nearly 8,000 foreign buyers a day this year, and AI products now make up 61 percent of electronics in the zone (up from 41 percent in 2025). The INNO 100 store is a tech retail-and-experience space worth a stop.
• Guangzhou — Dongshankou, a historic neighborhood turned trendy, for streetwear and shoes.
• Changsha — snack shopping at its most overwhelming.
• Shanghai — malls for beauty and apparel; seven new measures make linking foreign cards to WeChat Pay and Alipay noticeably easier.
• Chengdu — China Chic clothing and electronics stores where foreign tourists make up about 30 percent of daily foot traffic.

How the buying side got easier

The policy push is real. Departure tax refund applications from overseas visitors more than tripled year on year in the first seven months of 2026, after MOFCOM and other agencies optimized the scheme in May — wider store coverage, paperless processing and refund-on-purchase services. Shenzhen's airport now offers "tap-to-refund," settling payment and tax refund with a single card tap on the POS terminal. Beijing launched the world's first city-wide metro wallet for foreign visitors, and Shenzhen extended tap-to-ride to all 432 metro stations.

What it means for your trip

Shopping here is an experience, not an errand: you test drones in Huaqiangbei, line up for Pop Mart blind boxes, argue with an old pharmacist about black sesame balls. Chinese products aren't necessarily cheaper than at home — but the range, the design and the in-person testing make the trip worth an empty suitcase. Keep your receipts for departure tax refunds, link a card to WeChat Pay or Alipay before you fly, and leave room in the bag.

Browse chinapie.ai for Shenzhen, Guangzhou and shopping experience pages before you book.