Chongqing - From sipping hot water and wearing a cheongsam to practicing Baduanjin and rubbing walnuts - following the viral success of "City or Not City" and "China Travel" (which racked up over 28 billion views), a new buzzword is taking over global social media in 2026: "Chinamaxxing." Related hashtags, including #becomingchinese and #veryChinese, have collectively surpassed 4 billion views since 2025.
A foreign tourist records with a Chinese-brand pocket camera at the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing, the capital of China, May 2, 2026. (Photo/Xinhua)
"Maxxing" - a suffix popular among young Western netizens - means maximizing or optimizing one's life around a particular pursuit. "Chinamaxxing" thus describes the growing enthusiasm among overseas users, particularly Gen Z, for adopting elements of Chinese daily life: from drinking warm water and practicing Baduanjin breathing exercises to traveling, shopping, and engaging with Chinese popular culture. This marks a significant shift: global youth are moving beyond merely "seeing China" or "checking in at China" to genuinely becoming part of Chinese everyday life.
For Chongqing, a municipality recently designated by the State Council as a "key city for inbound tourism cultivation" under the 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Tourism Power (2026-2030), the "Chinamaxxing" wave presents a timely opportunity. Here are three key lessons for the city.
On the evening of August 11, at Jinhaiwan Park in Liangjiang New Area, Thai travel vlogger Amalia and her team were busy filming. She had planned a nine-day stay in Chongqing to capture its famed nightscapes but found herself drawn instead to the city’s everyday life - scenic, walkable, and participatory.
A foreign shopper browses clothing at the New Chongqing International Smallware Wholesale Center in Chongqing. (Photo/China News)
“Chongqing is incredibly photogenic. The city and its scenery are seamlessly integrated,” Amalia told reporters. Like most visitors, she checked off iconic spots such as Hongyadong, the Yangtze River Cableway, and the Liziba monorail crossing. But as filming progressed, she noticed something deeper: the boundary between scenic areas and local neighborhoods is blurred here. There is no sense of fenced-off, ticketed zones. The city lives within the landscape, and residents and visitors share the same vibrant spaces. Her short videos of drinking tea in Shancheng Lane, wearing a cheongsam in Ciqikou, and watching pandas at the zoo each garnered over 100,000 views. “Fans commented, ‘You’re more Chongqing than the locals’-isn’t that the essence of Chinamaxxing?” she said.
Local businesses are feeling the shift. At Ciqikou Ancient Town - one of the first batch of "Chinese historical and cultural blocks" designated by the State Council - Yan Yongxia, a municipal-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Shaci Random Needle Embroidery, has seen a surge in foreign customers over the past three months. They buy finished products, order custom pieces, and even want to try their hand at making coiled buttons or tailoring cheongsams. "What overseas visitors buy is not just a product, but Chongqing’s aesthetic and cultural memory," Yan said. Now, more than 30% of her shop's business comes from international clients, some of whom have even learned to bargain, "sometimes more fiercely than domestic tourists."
Chongqing, renowned for its historical and cultural significance, boasts a rich tapestry of humanities and heritage that seamlessly intertwines with its modern urban fabric. This blend of ancient and contemporary is vividly illustrated along the riverside of Maguikou, where history resonates amidst modernity. (Photo/New Chongqing in the Lens - Si Qi)
Luo Zibo, Chief Expert of the Yangtze River Tourism Research Base at the China Tourism Academy and Director of the Chongqing Tourism Development Research Center, noted that the evolution from “City or Not City” to “China Travel” and now “Chinamaxxing” reflects a fundamental upgrade, from traditional sightseeing to immersive, experience-driven travel. Inbound tourism is becoming more independent, younger, deeper, and more diversified. "The top lesson for Chongqing," he said, "is to let scenic spots blend into everyday scenes and create shared living spaces where hosts and guests enjoy life together."
On August 10, as the Cruise "Century Oasis" sailed into Qutang Gorge - the first of the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River - passengers on deck erupted in excitement. “Very shocking!” “So perfect!” they exclaimed, phones raised to capture the majestic view.
"Over 30% of our passengers are international, and we are on track to hit our annual targets ahead of schedule," said Lin Hai, International Marketing Director of Chongqing Century Cruises, who has spent more than a decade promoting Chongqing abroad. He believes that while Chinamaxxing reflects a yearning for lifestyle, its foundation rests on two pillars: the emotional value of Chinese daily life, offering both "relaxation and order", and solid tourism infrastructure.
Grand view of Qutang Gorge. (Photo/Qiao Xuezhu)
Chongqing’s core tourism assets - the mountain cityscape, the Three Gorges, the Wulong Karst (a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site since 2007), and the Dazu Rock Carvings (a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999) - are globally competitive. “We are promoting ‘cruise +’ packages that combine Three Gorges cruises with Dazu Rock Carvings, Wulong Karst, TCM therapy, and robotics experiences, and the feedback has been very positive,” Lin said. Despite tourists’ curiosity about mobile payments, high-speed rail, and local culture, sightseeing remains a fundamental need - and scenic areas continue to be key decision-making factors in travel choices.
“A second lesson,” Lin added, “is to further strengthen our flagship products to generate stronger core attraction.”
Converting online “traffic” into actual tourism “sales” is an urgent challenge, and social media is central to the solution.
In April 2025, Chongqing launched the “Dynamic Chongqing” drone light show. To date, the show has staged over 90 performances, attracted more than 11 million on-site spectators, and generated over 11 billion views online. On June 17, 2025, a performance featuring 11,787 drones set a Guinness World Record for the “largest aerial image created by drones.” The show has been featured on CCTV’s Xinwen Lianbo and in The Wall Street Journal and has become an iconic showcase of the city.
A drone light show illuminates Chongqing's night sky. (Photo/ Vivian Yan)
Tourism is fundamentally an attention economy. International marketing is crucial for attracting global visitors. In recent years, Chongqing has leveraged its core brand, “Majestic Landscapes, Dynamic Chongqing”, using viral content and inbound tourism to convert its unique mountain-river resources, deep Ba-Yu culture, and living practices into international communication impact.
Zhang Dawei, Regional Government Affairs General Manager at Trip.com Group, said, “The success of Chinamaxxing reminds us to use overseas social media better to amplify Chongqing’s international voice. Even good wine needs a signboard. With the internet deeply embedded in daily life, social media has become a key engine for creating city hits, and international marketing must make full use of this platform.”
Looking ahead, a spokesperson from the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development said the city will implement six measures: appointing a group of tourism promotion ambassadors, establishing overseas tourism windows, planning a series of international exchange events, creating blockbuster inbound products, cultivating international service talent, and designating demonstration service enterprises. The goal is to leverage inbound tourism to enhance international communication, enabling overseas visitors to experience and understand China and Chongqing firsthand, thereby converting “traffic visitors” into “word-of-mouth ambassadors.” This, the spokesperson said, will create a virtuous cycle between inbound tourism and international cultural outreach, injecting sustained vitality into Chongqing’s drive to become a world-renowned cultural tourism destination.
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