The most off-beat virtual experiences for the locked down tourist
Turquoise tour flag in one hand and a piece of white paper sketched with the characters “Tour Guide Certificate” hanging around his neck, Zhang Zhenhao, a man in his late 30s fitted with sunglasses and sports jacket, is introducing local “botanical life” with passion.
Guides like Zhang can be found in almost every scenic site around China, usually leading a group of retirees with a packed itinerary of famous “must-see” historic attractions. The only difference today is that Zhang is alone, standing in a crummy vegetable garden as he presents patches of scallions and cabbages to an invisible audience on video-sharing platform Kuaishou. “Wow, we are so stunned here! Why? Because there are so many rare botanic species!” he says to camera.
Zhang, a professional tour guide, made this short video as part of a series of parody tours called “Cooped-up Tour Guide” in 2020, when he was stuck in his hometown in rural Anhui during the first wave of Covid-19. With the tourism industry hard hit by the pandemic, Zhang began making videos that showed netizens around spots in his village, which he calls, tongue-in-cheek, the “Zhenhao International Resort.”
Siyi is the Culture Editor at The World of Chinese. She writes about arts, culture, and society, and is ever-curious about the minds, hearts, and souls inside all of these spheres. Before joining TWOC, she was a freelance writer with some additional work experience in independent filmmaking and the field of education.
