STOP Falling for Fake Ads on TikTok & XHS! 🧐

Felt the need to make this post because the whole “hidden ads” situation that chinese people on XHS have been ranting about is now spreading to TikTok 😭

Lately, there’s a rising number TikTok accs recommending their itinerary as a Singaporean OR Malaysian. BUT, many of them are actually China tour agencies pretending to be Singaporeans or Malaysians. They will post pictures, making it seem like a genuine recommendation, but it’s really just an ad.

‼️How to spot:

1. Random Singlish Slangs in the Title/Description

If you look closely, the way these posts are written is super sus.

“- Really shiok trip!” - why the dash is here?

“Travel lah” - lah?! 😭

“super chill lor~” - LOR? and what’s this ‘~’ for?

Bro…which Singaporean actually types like that? 😭😩And all the random dashes “-” everywhere… it honestly feels like someone inputted into Chatgpt, ‘translate my script and make it sound Singaporean’.

2. Apart from the itinerary post, they will post random Singaporean pictures as a TikTok post, which you can easily find online. Then 10 post later, another itinerary on Yunnan….or Chengdu or any other China destination. It’s a same sequence and copywriting. It’s mostly Yunnan itineraries from what I noticed.

3. Check the person profile. There are instances of Malaysians or Singaporeans themselves, working for these agencies.

4. In the comments, people will ask to PM. And they will usually respond with “OK”, “Okay”, “Ok 🌹”

now which Singaporean will end an Ok with a rose. pls enlighten yourself.

While there’s may be nothing wrong to go with their tour recommendation, I think more people should be aware of why these agencies are marketing themselves this way.

Let’s be real, if they were that good, would they need to pretend to be locals just to gain trust? And do you think that agencies who go through such lengths would be trustworthy and charge you reasonably…?

If you don’t want to plan and prefer going with a reliable tour, the better option to find tours is actually Taobao (yes, Taobao). There’s a section called Fei Zhu where tour agencies are vetted and reviewed, so it’s safer. Cost wise, definitely way cheaper than whatever you’re quoted from these agencies. You can also compare prices easily, and if anything goes wrong, you can report them to Taobao directly, which these agencies really don’t want. Chinese companies care ALOT about negative reviews, and would do anything to avoid this.

So please, be more aware of what you’re trusting online. I see way too many Singaporeans or Malaysians falling for this. And then weeks later you will see ppl writing a post to avoid this and that, because the tour agent brought them to buy jade, or silver or some weird ass painting. There’s alot of such posts on XHS, feel free to look them up.

Anyway, I’m not working for any agencies or paid in this post. If yall are unsure, feel free to screenshot me their posts, I will see for you when I’m free haha.

#chinatravelguide #yunnan #chinatrip