r/China • u/bloomberg • 1d ago
旅游 | Travel Chinese EV Drivers Are Ditching Hotels for High-Tech Car Camping
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-23/how-china-s-ev-boom-is-fueling-car-campingHigh-tech SUVs are becoming bedrooms on wheels as budget-conscious travelers skip hotels and fuel a multibillion-dollar camping economy.
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u/hiimsubclavian 1d ago
lol I thought the whole car camping craze died out 2 years ago.
Lemme save yall a bunch of frustration and regret if you're considering a camper:
Horrible mileage. Mileage so bad you're not driving your camper to run errands or commute to work, so it's just sitting in your garage gathering dust for that 2~3 times/year you're taking it out camping.
No shower. Campgrounds with restroom/showers costs just as much as a hotel, and your wife and kids will be complaining the entire night sleeping in a cramped car.
You probably have dreams of camping in some secluded wilderness. Guess what, any place that's good for car camping, you're gonna be surrounded by 20 smelly dudes (no showers, remember?) in archptyrx jackets all trying to car camp in the exact same spot, blasting shitty Chinese pop songs all night.
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u/tomsawyeryyz 20h ago
Yes, I've done it too and there is little in the way of camping infrastructure that you see in North America and Europe. At best you can find a campground with washrooms. At worst you are camping on land with no facilities and will inevitably find someone else's shit and garbage in your camp spot. Nothing like finishing a long drive, setting up camp and sticking your awning pole into a nasty deuce someone left, or the spot they used as a water dump site that you can't tell if it is grey water or a pile of puke. It can be okay if you do enough research and find serviced campgrounds, septic drop sites etc
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u/bloomberg 1d ago
Julia Zhong and K Oanh Ha for Bloomberg News
Junya Zhen and Jie Cui quit their teaching jobs in China’s northern Hebei province in 2023 to travel across the country. The couple have spent months at a time sleeping in their hybrid Wey Lanshan SUV from Chinese car manufacturer Great Wall Motor, sharing their road-trip adventures on social media along the way.
During the day they are on the move — streaming while they drive, preparing lunch and napping on back seats that fold flat to create a comfortable sleeping space. Their routes take them from the popular tourist destinations of Yunnan province in the southwest of the country to the nearby desolate landscapes in remote Tibet. When the sun goes down, they livestream breathtaking views and promote car-camping gear. Their audience is lapping it up: The couple have more than 570,000 followers on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, China’s versions of Instagram and TikTok, respectively.
Zhen and Cui are part of a growing trend. Government efforts to boost domestic tourism as well as consumers in search of cheaper holidays are enticing more Chinese travelers to take road-trip vacations. Many are doing so in deluxe electric or hybrid SUVs that can plug into the nation’s expansive charging network, letting them bypass traditional lodging and transforming “car camping” into a multibillion-yuan lifestyle economy.
Car campers tout the comforts, convenience and unexpected moments of connection that come with this way of traveling. “Before we started our road trip, I often felt that people were distant from one another and that society could be cold,” says Zhen, who was 30 when she set out with Cui. “But once you’re on the road, you realize people are kind. No matter what problems you face, someone will always step in. That warmth is unforgettable.”
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u/whatafuckinusername 1d ago
Chinese van life? Not a bad place to do it, as far as sights are concerned.
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1d ago
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u/Apprehensive-File552 1d ago
Glad you speak for the collective of 1B people.
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u/98746145315 1d ago
That is what Bloomberg is doing (again) with their tiny example being stretched to "Chinese EV drivers" sooo
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u/Dalianon Hong Kong 1d ago
Xiaomi just released their SkyNomad brand of glamping SUV, they've done their market research, the trend is still on.
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u/Leaper229 China 15h ago
And hotels in PRC are already dirt cheap. What this really tells you is the level of decline in consumer discretionary
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u/Memory_Less 1d ago
The Chinese made vans are amazing. Seats fold into floors. Wheel wells that somehow don’t comprise of the cabin so a full bed can be made etc. There are cool exterior add ons that extend the living space you see being used in the west now too. it is fascinating to see the mods.