21 dishes in 24 hours: China's youth embrace lightning travel

'Special force style' trips cram maximum eating and experience into 1 or 2 days

20230724 China travel HONG KONG

Young people in China who are short on time and money are squeezing the most out of extremely short trips.  © Getty Images

MARRIAN ZHOU and NANA SHIBATA, Nikkei staff writers

NEW YORK/JAKARTA -- When Chinese travel blogger Xiaotiantian visited Chongqing in Sichuan province, she had a mission: to eat, and eat fast.

In a short video post on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, she documents how she arrived at the airport at 9 a.m., took a taxi straight to the Guanyin street food area and "ate everything in 24 hours." She started her day with an internet-famous milk tea before moving on to such offerings as spicy ramen with crawfish, skewers in spicy hot pot, handmade icy sweet dumplings -- 21 different dishes in all -- before ending her day at Hongyadong, a famous tourist spot.

Sponsored Content

About Sponsored ContentThis content was commissioned by Nikkei's Global Business Bureau.