'Living like a local' reshapes tourism

A young woman checks into a hotel in Shenzhen's Nantou ancient town on a Friday evening. At the front desk, she is handed a room key and a small blue mesh bag.

Inside is cat food.

"There are stray cats all over the old town. Take a walk. Feed them," the receptionist says.

The bag, printed with hand-drawn illustrations of local cats and a small map of surrounding streets, serves as an informal guide to the neighborhood. It is part of the guest experience at Tiaohai Living Youth Hostel, located in one of Shenzhen's remaining urban villages in South China's Guangdong province.

In the narrow lanes around the property, open-front kitchens, small shops and long-time residents form a dense urban fabric. The hostel's slogan, written on a chalkboard near the entrance, reads, "Check in. Step out."

The concept encourages guests not to remain indoors, but to explore the surrounding community.

Inside one of the rooms, curtains are made from two patchworks of faded denim, floral cotton and striped fabric stitched together from secondhand clothes donated by nearby residents.

"These are the colors that once flowed through the streets of Nantou," says Sui Yi, cofounder of Tiaohai Living.

In the hallway, a "Give and Take" table allows departing guests to leave behind everyday items such as toiletries, snacks or travel essentials for others to use. In dormitory rooms, magnetic boards let guests indicate preferences such as "early sleeper", "late return", or "open to chatting".

Sui says the idea for the hostel came during frequent business travels.

He recalls staying in a mid-tier hotel in a Chinese city where, upon waking, he could not immediately identify where he was. The rooms, he says, felt identical across locations.

"The hotel gave me a place to sleep, but it couldn't tell me anything about the city I was actually in," he says.

That experience, he adds, became the starting point for Tiaohai Living, which opened in 2025. The concept aims to turn accommodation into a gateway for understanding the surrounding city.

He notes that some guests have stayed for extended periods, including job seekers who remained for several weeks or longer, and that others have returned after leaving, seeking to reconnect with people they met during their stay.

The development of such hospitality models reflects broader changes in China's tourism sector, where traditional sightseeing patterns centered on ticketed attractions are gradually giving way to more experience-oriented travel.