Meet the Design Students Helping Beijingers Travel "Abroad" During COVID

For the past month there has been one official WeChat account that has caught my eye more than the rest. With its bold and punchy blue and pink font, cutesy but effective animations, and detailed descriptions of global travel destinations, Liwaili Travel Agency (ID: liwaili2020) has acted as a small window to the outside world for Beijingers like myself desperate for escape.

The campaign is the brainchild of five Chinese design students – Yuke, Kylo, Chok, Han Yan, and Youran – and the culmination of three months' work under the tutelage of Lava Beijing's annual summer studio project. Working in the shadow of the coronavirus, the students wanted to create something fitting for the times but playful and uplifting enough so as to entertain, rather than depress.

The result is a run of WeChat posts that digitally parody the Chinese travel agency and group tour experience. The in-your-face and vernacular-heavy compositions, promising unforgettable experiences at unbeatable prices, are taken directly from a dying breed of flyers that once plastered China's train stations and subway entrances. Attention-grabbing by design, the purpose of these advertisements was to lure in eager first-time travelers who had an itch to explore but perhaps not the wherewithal to plan.

Underneath the nostalgic design, however, lies a breadth of information that is of use to any Beijinger who has felt done in by the lack of travel options as of late. That's because these students went out of their way to analyze over 30 Beijing sites in relation to similar attractions around the world, spanning Asia, Africa, and Europe. Over the group's central three posts, these sites were collated, rated, and described as well as given a "percent similarity" for good measure. View it as your dream world trip, albeit one viewed entirely from the comfort of your phone.

Describing how they settled on the project, Liwaili tells the Beijinger, "Since the pandemic began, people have been stuck in their homes and unable to travel. We wanted to provide people with the experience and feeling of traveling abroad. Some of us grew up in Beijing or spent a lot of time here and we were aware of various sights."

"We first surveyed our friends via WeChat Moments about destinations they knew of in Beijing that felt like abroad. After compiling the suggestions, we looked to social media app Xiaohongshu, which was an invaluable resource for its abundance of (largely female) travelers who love showing off their luxury travel experiences complete with endless photos."

Liwaili admits that this type of travel experience may not be as popular as it once was. Chinese people, especially the younger generations, are becoming increasingly savvy and independent when it comes to travel. Anyone who has had the pleasure of going with a group also now knows that these package tours leave a lot to be desired if you're wanting a relaxing holiday.

"The tours are usually defined by being whisked around to a lot of places with a lot of people and the combination of lots of people talking, sitting in the bus, being yelled at by a guide with a megaphone. It adds up to a rather stressful experience," Liwaili says. "You spend a lot of time on the bus, looking at the view out of the window and even though you stop and take pictures, you're quickly piled back onto the bus so that you can return to the hotel or go eat a Chinese-style meal. It feels as if you’re not actually in a foreign country."

It's this type of experience that the group hope to relay in their final piece this weekend, giving 20 individuals a taste of Kyoto's bamboo forests, Europe's colonialist-era architecture, and finishing with a view of Beijing's very own Notre Dame Cathedral, all without leaving the confines of the capital. While the tour is already fully booked – a testament to people's desperation to travel –  you can create your very own itinerary via Liwaili's in-depth tour guides here, here, and here.

In a comforting twist, when asked what their biggest concerns were for the upcoming tour, the group unanimously respond that the weather poses the biggest threat. In that regard, it very much sounds like a holiday.

Inspire your next Beijing jaunt by browsing all of Liwaili's posts via their official WeChat account: liwaili2020.

READ: Beyond the Hutong: A Slice of Serenity at Hill Station Moganshan

Images courtesy of Liwaili, Bilibili