Photo-perfect holiday snaps raise accuracy concerns

After visiting an attraction that had gone viral for its stunning photos, an underwhelmed tourist jokingly complained on social media:"Did I come to the wrong place or am I just a bad photographer?"

Images and videos shared on social media have become an important source of information for holiday planners in China, especially for those who are internet-savvy trend seekers.

However, some of the content is so heavily polished that it has become borderline misinformation.

Xiaohongshu, a social media platform in China, apologized via its WeChat account on Oct 17 about overly polished content.

It admitted that some users did "over-beautify" posts, such as holiday photos. Because those users did not mark them as photographic artwork, they were used as guides by people who later felt disappointed and deceived when visiting the attractions themselves, it said.

"We sincerely apologize to our users," said the platform, adding it will launch products such as attraction rankings so as to provide more balanced information.

A resident of the eastern Zhejiang province surnamed Zheng, who is well-traveled, was looking for some less-visited destinations for her holiday.

"The places (recommended by social media users) look unique and the photos are very beautiful,"Zheng was quoted as saying by China National Radio.

Zheng chose to visit what looked like a miniature version of Sanya, which is a beach destination in South China's Hainan province.

She departed expecting to see the blue sky, azure waters, beach and coconut palms in the photos she saw. Instead she found that the beach was covered with "dark-yellow industrial sands that were coarse and hard". The palm trees and ocean there were both artificial, according to the CNR report.

Another "filtered attraction" that attracted criticism on social media was the "pink beach" in Chengjiang in Southwest China's Yunnan province. Visitors who went there found that the beach was not pink, but dark red. Instead of fine powdery sands, the beach was covered with coarse stones and thick soil, which is a type of red-colored earth common in Yunnan.

Chen Jian, who works at an internet company in Beijing, went to the Wulanhada volcano park in the northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region during the weeklong National Day holiday starting on Oct 1.

The park is known for its "astronauts on Mars" photos, where people take pictures wearing spacesuits in front of the volcanoes.

"I had watched videos about the place before going and some of my friends had been there too," Chen told TechXingqiu, a media outlet focused on internet technology.

He said the photos his friends took looked quite good. "It looked like they were actually on Mars," he said.

But Chen managed his expectations before going and ended up with a satisfying trip. "There wasn't much to see there, but it was really a photogenic place," Chen said.

There wasn't much to do after taking the photos as there were virtually no other tourist attractions or facilities in the park, according to Chen. "Maybe the park didn't expect such large crowds this year," he added.

"The main purpose why people visit the park is to take photos, so it's the feeling the spacesuit gives you that really matters," Chen said. "The moment I put on the suit, I felt a great sense of pride in China's space endeavors."

Besides heavily filtered photos, some travel videos are misleading. In these, people eat with relish, enjoy various amusement facilities and are invited to exquisitely decorated homestays. But when netizens went themselves, they found that the food was not as good as claimed and the amusement facilities were only open at certain times, CNR reported.

Attractions that rely on misleading information can only last for a short time and are destined to be abandoned by tourists, said a report by China Consumer News.

Regulators can investigate and screen these "viral attractions" according to feedback from netizens and produce a publicly available blacklist, the report said.