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perhaps “substitution” was originally an interesting joke, effective propaganda, or a placebo when one cannot travel abroad, but it has gradually evolved into a crude fashion. the simplified “small ××” has obliterated the uniqueness of each place.

on the internet, the world is a huge "qingdao".

wheat island is "pretending to be jeju island", shazikou is "roughly equivalent to the five fishing villages", the intersection of bada gorge is "little kamakura", and the photos of the old city with red tiles and green trees overlooking from xiaoyu mountain and xinhao mountain often have the title "friends circle is asking crazy, it's really not italy".

△overlooking the scenery of the old city from signal hill in qingdao. this place is often called "italian flat" on the internet. (photo/li jin, ji han)

but when i posted photos of these places on wechat moments, no one ever asked me this. my friends could tell at a glance that i was just going to qingdao again.

"substitute tourism" is popular, and for places like qingdao, which have their own exotic atmosphere, traffic comes effortlessly. similar examples: four years ago, there were not many tourists in ningde sanduao. the western-style buildings left after the forced opening of the port in the late 19th century were quiet, but now the gothic monastery makes people shout on social media that "it feels like being in a european castle"; the commercial street of shiwei, a small town on the border between china and russia, is a poor imitation of russian architecture, and the "onion dome" stands abruptly above the hotel, and the sunset outlines a silhouette that looks like the kremlin...

△shuiwei, a small town on the border of inner mongolia. its commercial street imitates russian-style architecture, with an "onion dome" that is only used in churches. (photos by li jin and ji han)

in places without colonial architectural heritage and diverse landscapes of border towns, as long as you choose the right travel photography angle, you can also create beautiful pictures that "are not unaffordable, but more cost-effective." real estate buildings with iron towers can be "little paris", abandoned ethnic parks can become "little angkor", and the sea and intersections (even without trams) form countless "little kamakura". people are not even satisfied with checking in on the earth. there are many "mars" scattered on the gobi desert in the northwest, and tourists in space suits line up to take pictures in the yadan landform.

△ deep in the dahaidao, hami, xinjiang, there is a camp called "mars base". (photo/li jin, ji han)

in such a single rhetoric, actions are blind and imagination is lacking. shandan has one of the oldest and largest military horse farms in the world, and the horse herders boasted that "we are 'little switzerland'." but i came here for the qilian mountains where "livestock did not reproduce" in the xiongnu's tragic song, the "hanyang grassland" (now damaying grassland) where thousands of horses galloped, and the reflection of the snow-capped mountains next to the ruins of the ancient city of luanniao - shandan is unique. every place is unique.

whenever i see headlines like “this isn’t really paris/tokyo/…” on social media, i just want to roll my eyes: who can’t see that it isn’t!

△the moshi park in western sichuan is famous for its landforms that look like an alien planet. (photos by li jin and ji han)

the colors of the mediterranean limestone and the yellow sea reefs are different, the viewing tower on xiaoyu mountain is a typical chinese pavilion, the laoshan village behind shazikou once gave shen congwen the inspiration to write "border town", and the governor's residence at the foot of xinhao mountain is an "architectural specimen" of various styles... the charms of the italian coast and qingdao are unique in their own ways. why should qingdao be called italy's "substitute"?

i wonder if the people who wrote in an excited tone, "i dug up a 'small kamakura'" or "found a 'flat cinque terre'" really like kamakura and cinque terre? do they really like aoshima?

△an intersection in badaxia, qingdao, is one of the countless "small kamakura" in the country. (photo/li jin, ji han)

if you like kamakura and cinque terre, you should know that what attracts travelers to cross mountains and oceans is not the simple combination of the sea and the intersection, the sea and the houses; if you like qingdao, how can you use words like "small" and "plain" to lower its beauty and ignore its characteristics?

perhaps "substitution" was originally an interesting joke, effective publicity, and a placebo when you can't travel abroad, but now it has gradually evolved into a crude trend. it obliterates the particularity of each place, abandons the understanding and exploration of uniqueness, and just keeps creating one "little ××" after another for traffic.

in the end, whether at home or in a foreign land, the world scenery on the internet is all the same.