In China, tourists are offered for money to survive the typhoon and flood

In China, “dark tourism” and “pay for suffering” vacations are gaining popularity. Tourists visit locations where you can survive the imitation of a typhoon, flood or earthquake, and visit real places of tragedy.

One of the tourists, whose story tells the publication, 28-year-old Leon Liu from Chongqing traveled more than 1,300 km to Hangzhou, together with a group of 20 people to participate in a flood simulation from a typhoon. During the high tide, she lost consciousness for a moment when hundreds of tons of water knocked people off their feet. According to her, as a result of such a tourist experiment, she learned to stay calm and properly dispose of the body, which “no book or school” will teach.

The project was developed by Lvxing Base, which has been shooting documentary films in extreme conditions for more than 10 years. The complex is located on an area of 200 thousand square meters. m. The location, which opened in 2024, simulates dangerous weather conditions such as typhoons and landslides. According to the general director Wang Kuanghan, the greatest interest in this type of recreation is shown by people aged 20-30 years.

Similar simulations are offered by state sites: in Beijing, the Haidian Public Security Museum, you can experience an earthquake, tsunami and fire in a 4D cinema, and in Guangzhou, a five-storey center with a 7.2 magnitude earthquake simulator has opened.

Some tourists choose real places of tragedy, the Guardian notes. So, 30-year-old writer Alice visited Beichuan, preserved after the earthquake of 2008, and tour guide Samantha Wang sees a growing interest in the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, where local authorities reserve 25,000 places a day. According to the director of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Robert Lee, the new generation of travelers wants not just to see the sights, but to get an unforgettable experience.

In September, the commercial director of “Tez Tour Russia” Voskan Arzumanov said that Russian tourists chose the Chinese island of Hainan, as they prefer to relax at sea and refocus on Asia due to the Middle East crisis. According to him, Hainan occupies about 90-95% of the total tourist flow to China.