‘China Haul’ Becomes a Global Shopping Trend

Foreign tourists are increasingly arriving in China with empty suitcases and leaving with them packed full of Chinese-made products, a phenomenon now known as the “China Haul” that has spread across overseas social media. According to Xinhua, overseas visitors spent 263.6 billion yuan (about 39 billion U.S. dollars) in China in the first seven months of 2026 alone, a 27.8 percent increase year on year.

The trend takes its name from the unboxing videos that foreign shoppers post online, showcasing everything from AI glasses and drones to cosmetics and traditional herbal remedies. The phrase also plays on its resemblance to “中国好,” or “China is good.”

From Tea and Silk to Tech and Design

The shopping list has changed dramatically. For decades, foreign visitors to China bought what commentators call the “old three” — tea, silk and panda dolls. Today’s haul leans toward high-value electronics, original design and culturally infused goods.

At Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei electronics district, an average of nearly 8,000 foreign buyers visited each day this year. From January through July 2026, sales of artificial intelligence products there surged more than 55 percent year on year, AI glasses sales doubled, and drone and robot sales climbed between 60 and 70 percent, according to Xinhua.

“I came here to feel the best technology I have ever seen in the whole world,” Ulises Padilla, an 11-year-old Mexican tourist, told Xinhua. “We don’t have these kinds of drones in Mexico.”

Italian tourist Andrea Triboldi said he chose Shenzhen as the first stop of his China trip because of its technology. “My son is particularly into DJI drones and wants to buy one to take home,” he said.

The trend extends well beyond electronics. At Yiwu International Trade City, known as the “world’s supermarket,” foreign tourists now account for more than 40 percent of inbound visitors. Average daily foot traffic reached 294,000 in the first half of 2026, up 34 percent year on year, and the city recorded tourism revenue of 17.45 billion yuan, up 10.2 percent. In Guangxi, home to traditional Zhuang brocade markets, inbound tourists reached 1.4721 million in the first half of 2026, a jump of 62.8 percent.

Reverse Shopping and Policy Tailwinds

The phenomenon represents a reversal of the historic “daigou” flow, in which Chinese tourists traveled abroad to shop for foreign goods. Now, foreign consumers come to China in search of brands and products that are less available, more expensive or not yet launched in their home countries.

As CGTN reported, a widely shared comment under the “China Haul” hashtag captures the experience: “Bring an empty suitcase when you travel to China, because you’ll shop until you’re exhausted.” British YouTuber Elliot Page, who has more than 940,000 followers, posted a nearly 20-minute unboxing video in late August featuring clothing he bought in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which had attracted about 130,000 views.

Several policy measures have made shopping easier for overseas visitors. As ECNS noted, China has extended its unilateral visa-free entry policy to 50 countries and offers 240-hour visa-free transit to citizens of 57 countries, covering 65 ports across 24 provincial-level regions. The minimum purchase amount for a departure tax refund was lowered to 200 yuan (about $30) per transaction, and the “refund upon purchase” service was expanded nationwide.

The results are visible in the numbers. Foreign nationals made almost 61.29 million border crossings in the January–August period of 2026, up 19.5 percent from a year earlier, with visa-free entries accounting for 23.72 million of the total, an increase of 26.8 percent. Inbound foreign visitors reached 22.914 million in the first half of 2026, up 20.4 percent year on year.

“A range of favorable conditions, including tax refunds, mobile payments and visa-free policies, have systematically reduced the cost of cross-border consumer transactions, helping to facilitate the ‘China Haul’ trend,” Gao Li, vice dean of the School of International Business at Tianjin Foreign Studies University, told Xinhua.

A Shift in Consumption Logic

Analysts say the trend reflects something deeper than bargain-hunting. He Yun, an associate professor at Hunan University’s school of public administration, told Xinhua that the popularity of “China Haul” stems from a shift in the consumption logic of overseas tourists, who are “moving from purchasing foreign cultural symbols to buying Chinese technologies, designs and consumption experiences.”

The trend, she noted, is underpinned by the upgrading of China’s manufacturing and cultural and creative industries — a substantial transition from exporting production capacity to exporting brands and lifestyles.

Bai Xiaoqing, deputy director of the editing and publishing department at the Communication University of China, argued that the products going viral overseas are mostly not mass-produced replicas but goods integrating technological innovation with Eastern aesthetics. Products such as herbal soaps and moxibustion tools retain strong local characteristics, she said, becoming “a scarce aesthetic resource that gives goods a unique symbolic premium.”

Chinese consumers are also traveling in the opposite direction. During the 2026 National Day holiday, Chinese tourists traveled to more than 3,800 cities worldwide, with more than 1.21 million outbound flight tickets booked, up about 4 percent year on year. In 2025, China recorded 148 million outbound tourist trips, while inbound tourism reached 154 million.

What’s Next

The open question is whether the “China Haul” becomes a durable consumer habit or fades as a passing fad. Liu Hui, executive director of the Brand Leadership Research Center at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the People’s Daily that companies must shift from “product going global” to “brand going global,” guarding quality and compliance and upgrading overseas warehouses into localized service nodes.

For now, the trend is rewriting the way the world shops for Chinese goods — and, as Bai put it, the weight of a suitcase now lies less in the goods it carries than in “the real, vivid China it presents to the world.”