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Tourism & Leisure

Localized “Hangzhou Expats” Posted on Social Media Showcase Hangzhou’ s Inclusiveness, Attractiveness

HANGZHOU, China

“Hangzhou Expats”, a series of videos depicting the lives of foreigners in Hangzhou, become a hot topic on a group of social media accounts of Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism. The compelling short videos, aiming to showcase Hangzhou’s inclusiveness, has garnered a large number of views on the Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms.

Romanian entrepreneur Ileana Maier said living in Hangzhou is like living in the future. For Benjamin Saltzman, a teacher from Los Angeles, Hangzhou is the perfect combination of tradition and modernity. They all have their own reasons to live in Hangzhou, according to “Hangzhou Expats”.

Taking the Hangzhou lifestyle as its backdrop, the eight-episode video series showed how foreigners view the city, and their passionate living experiences in the city.

Tosimitsu Takao, an IT technician from Japan, has lived in Hangzhou for 5 years. He was occasionally invited to join in a Hangzhou-based Chinese-Japanese band. During his training and performances, he made many friends sharing similar musical taste. Takao also discovered a Japanese bar where he could grab a drink after work. ” Gaining weight with friends” is the “evidence” of his happiness Hangzhou life.

Canadian rock climber Joe Langwald married a Hangzhou girl and has lived in Hangzhou for 20 years. He has spent 10 years developing Lion’s Head Mountain into the largest climbing area for both bouldering and sport climbing base in eastern China. Langwald loves Hangzhou green tea and Lin’ an bamboo shoots. “Don’t ask me if I like here, time tells all,” he told.

“Hangzhou Expats” has attracted attention on social media immediately after its first seven episodes, which resulted in 350,000 views. ” Nardus Smith left a comment: “I recently started rock climbing in Hangzhou and it’s been so wonderful being part of a community where foreigners and locals truly get along,” and his comments were echoed by others such as “I really want to live there, Hangzhou is so beautiful, “.

Whether the city is inclusive or not? The expats living there have the final say. For overseas viewers who have never been to Hangzhou, “Hangzhou Expats” give them an objective presentation of the city. They can even imagine their future life in Hangzhou simply by watching these videos.

Among the first group of Chinese cities to promote tourism overseas via social media platforms, Hangzhou has committed to developing international communication through cultural exchange and interactive communication in the past ten years.

Hangzhou has shown its Chinese style, local charm and internationalization to the world by hosting a series of promotion activities, such as “Modern Marco Polo -Dr. Hangzhou”global recruitment campaign, Hangzhou Global Tour, and Hangzhou Global Qipao Festival.

By the end of August 2022, over 1.3 million people followed the Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts of Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism, with over 35 million annual impressions and over 1.74 million annual interactions (including video views).

A series of ongoing and upcoming activities, like Mid-Autumn Festival Photography Contest, interactive comics Su Dongpo’s New Life in Hangzhou, “Hello Hangzhou” video collection on social media and traditional Chinese festivals celebrations, Asian Games and other hot topics, have offered overseas fans valuable chances to participate in Hangzhou’s global culture and tourism endeavor.

For more information, visit Hangzhou on Facebook( https://www.facebook.com/Hangzhou.China/ ), Instagram( https://www.instagram.com/hangzhou_china/ ) or YouTube( https://youtube.com/c/HangzhouChina ).

SOURCE Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism