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Animal ears and pom-poms on fuzzy hats adorn the heads of tourists on the streets of the cold northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, where visitor numbers are surging thanks to social media. Photos and videos taken around the city’s historic sites such as TikTok counterpart Douyin and Instagram-esque Xiahongshu – many of which feature tourists from the hot south.
They are affectionately known as the “Southern small potatoes”, a reference to their perceived short stature and flashy winter gear that contrasts with the stereotypically rough character of the region. The search for “Southern small potatoes go north” gathered more than 428,000 notes on Xiaohongshu. Chen Ziting, who works in e-commerce in the southern province of Guangdong, said she was inspired to move here.
“This is the fastest way for young people to get travel recommendations,” Chen said. He said he saw a large number of fellow Southerners. “I hear a lot of Cantonese, which we are very familiar with today, in tourist sites and on the street,” said the 29-year-old woman, wearing a dog-eared hat and only her face exposed to the air. ,
Liu Rong, a student from Sichuan, said the city’s pressure for more southern tourists was evident in the increase in videos about Harbin that he often watches with his wife. “Over the years, especially this year, Harbin’s cultural tourism has paid great attention to us southerners,” Liu said.
‘Small potatoes’ head north
Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, one of three provinces that make up the “Dongbei” (northeast) region, where temperatures can reach −30 °C (−22 °F) during winter. Bordering Russia and North Korea, it is one of China’s poorest provinces, outperforming only neighboring Jilin, Gansu, Hainan Island and less populous Tibet, Qinghai and Ningxia.
But Heilongjiang’s cultural, sports and entertainment industries saw operating income rise by nearly 60 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2024, according to official data. Tourists spent 154 billion yuan ($21 billion) in the first half of 2024, a 171 percent increase from the first half of 2023. Popular novels and plays set in the Northeast have also helped spur a travel boom in the region.
“A lot of southern people, what we call ‘small potatoes’, came here to visit and made our Harbin very fashionable,” Emily Liu, a local tour guide, told AFP. Online fame has been good for the travel business, said Jiang Zhonglong, 30, gesturing energetically in front of his tripod just meters away from Liu.
He started working for a Harbin-based travel agency three years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and said business is much better now. “So many little dudes, Southern potatoes, tourists have all come here,” he said. One night this month, Central Street, the city’s commercial district, saw a steady stream of people walking down the cobblestone path under bright yellow lights.
Ling, 38, from the coastal eastern province of Zhejiang, had gone there with his wife to watch “daka”, a phrase that means “to punch” but which he now describes as visiting popular spots to share photos on social media. “We often scroll through (video sharing platform) Douyin and the like. We often see videos promoting Harbin,” said Ling, who asked to be identified only by his surname.
‘My hometown is popular’
Ling told AFP that he believed negative stereotypes about the Dongbei in the past. “But we came here and found that things are quite good,” he said. “I yearn for a different cultural experience than where I come from – the weather and style are completely different.” Nearby, a large number of people were crowded inside a shop selling goods from Russia – just a short distance away.
Foot traffic on the shopping street is expected to triple by 2022, said store manager Zhangzhang, who has worked in the area for more than 10 years and asked to be identified by his surname. “My hometown has suddenly become popular,” he said, adding that he was “extremely proud.” She said the store started selling more hats and scarves last year for travelers who “didn’t pack enough layers” — including hats and scarves printed with the region’s classic red flowers. “I think this can help lift the economy of our Dongbei.”
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