Why are Chinese influencers flocking to a Costco in Shanghai?
A girl wearing a green varsity jacket sits with her feet up inside a shopping cart in an empty parking lot; a group of friends in sunglasses hold up pizzas and cokes; another girl in a baseball cap poses on a lawn at dusk, looking back at her long shadow on the grass.
These photos, which are trending on Chinese social media, all have one thing in common — a big "Costco wholesale" logo featured prominently in the background, often against a deep blue sky.
The American retailer, which opened its first China store in Shanghai to massive crowds in 2019, has become an unlikely destination for Chinese influencers. But it's not the store's discounted bulk items that's attracting them; instead they are drawn to what they consider to be its "California vibe."
For nearly two years, most people in China have been unable to travel abroad, due to the country's stringent and unrelenting Covid-19 border restrictions: outbound flights are limited, quarantine upon reentry is harsh and lengthy, and Chinese authorities have ceased issuing or renewing passports for all but essential travel.
Nevertheless, some Chinese influencers have come up with creative ways to bring seemingly exotic scenes to their social media feeds — by taking pictures at places like the Costco Shanghai store.
On Xiaohongshu, a fashion and lifestyle app often referred to as China's Instagram, users share tips on how to pose for photos in front of the big box store so it looks as if they are in Los Angeles.
The pointers include wearing bright, casual clothes, carrying pizza and cola as props if you don't have Costco membership, and taking photos in the late afternoon, when the colors appear warmer and more saturated.
Most users are upfront about the fact they're not actually in LA and are merely posing for fun — with phrases like "Pretending to be in LA" cited frequently in captions.
Other popular pandemic-era hashtags include "Pretending to be in Paris" and "Pretending to be in Tokyo," with users posing in foreign-styled shopping streets, cafes or tea gardens.
For many influencers, this is just another fun way to liven-up their feeds. But the posts are also a painful and vivid reminder of how long China has been shut off from the world.
Before the pandemic hit, overseas travel had become a common part of life for China's growing middle class.
In 2019, mainland Chinese tourists made 155 million trips, with Macau, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Myanmar and the United States being the top destinations.
China was also the world's single biggest spender on outbound tourism. According to the United Nations' World Tourism Organization, Chinese tourists spent more than $254 billion overseas in 2019 — nearly one-fifth of global tourism spending.
At the height of the pandemic, global travel was brought to a halt, with nations rushing to close borders and cancel international flights.
Now, a growing number of countries are opening up and learning to live with the virus after rolling out mass vaccinations. But China is still keeping its borders tightly sealed and doubling down on its zero-Covid policy — with an aim to completely eradicate the virus from inside the country.
With overseas travel no longer viable, Chinese authorities have promoted domestic tourism as an alternative. China's vast size and rich diversity have played to its advantage, but it remains to be seen how much longer Chinese citizens will be content with being shut off from the real LA, Paris or Tokyo.
And with the highly infectious Delta variant, even domestic travel can be risky.
China's latest outbreak, which has infected more than 300 people across 12 provinces, is linked to a dozen tour groups, according to health authorities. Travel agencies have also been banned from organizing cross-provincial tours in regions with high case numbers.
In the country's northwest, hundreds of domestic tourists were trapped in Inner Mongolia and Gansu for days when authorities imposed stringent lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus.
In Ejin Banner, a region of Inner Mongolia, the local tourism board apologized by offering trapped tourists free entry to three popular attractions, redeemable within three years. But whether they will be willing to return is another story.  Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.  Steve George is Senior Editor for CNN International in Hong Kong. He oversees coverage from across the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on China.  Chinese state media reacted with unrestrained fury to CNN's exclusive interview with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen this week — in contrast to Beijing's more muted official response.
In her interview, Tsai admitted for the first time to the presence of US military trainers in Taiwan and called for help from regional democratic partners to defend the island against Chinese aggression.
On Thursday, multiple Chinese government departments responded, reiterating Beijing's long-held position that Taiwan is part of China and it would fight any attempts to separate the two.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China "firmly opposed" any military contacts or exchanges between Taiwan and the United States, adding Taiwanese independence was a "dead end."
Tan Kefei, spokesman for China's Defense Ministry, struck a similar tone, criticizing the US for trying to elevate military contacts with Taiwan, while stronger remarks from China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Beijing had "zero tolerance" for the island's independence.
Chinese state media, meanwhile, took an altogether different tone:
In an editorial Thursday, state-run tabloid Global Times said by admitting to the presence of US troops in Taiwan, Tsai had "crossed the bottom line" and was "inviting trouble."
"It is one of the most dangerous factors that could trigger a war in the Taiwan Straits," the Global Times said, adding if Taiwan thought a lack of military response now meant there wouldn't be one in the future, "this is an extremely dangerous misjudgment."
People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, said in an opinion piece the trend of history was for "reunification" between Taiwan and China. "If you follow it, you will prosper and if you go against it, you will perish," the article said.
A commentary by state broadcaster CGTN said Tsai's "reprehensible opportunism will soon be brought firmly to an end," and those pushing independence for Taiwan would "pay a price."
The article also compared Taiwan to Hong Kong protesters — many of whom have been jailed under laws imposed by Beijing following 2019 unrest — and said: "You might want to ask, where are they now?"  Ben Westcott is Digital Producer for CNN International in Hong Kong. He covers breaking news and foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on China and Australia.  Beijing races to contain Delta outbreak Beijing residents line up for coronavirus tests on Friday morning, as authorities rush to curb a widening Delta-variant outbreak. The Chinese capital has tightened entry restrictions for domestic travelers, banning anyone who has visited localities with infections from entering. On Thursday, two high-speed trains heading to Beijing were stopped midway through their journeys, when two crew members were found to be close contacts of confirmed cases. All passengers on board were taken away for quarantine.  Starbucks sales took a dent in its second-biggest market last quarter as a resurgence in coronavirus cases weighed on its business and shut down some of its stores.
The coffee giant said Thursday that store sales in China fell 7% in the three months that ended on October 3, citing "pandemic-driven disruptions."
China grappled with troubling new clusters of Covid-19 cases this summer, leading to renewed public health restrictions.
That outbreak was eventually brought under control, but a fresh surge in cases this month has authorities continuing to battle the spread of the virus by reintroducing lockdowns in some places, such as northern China.
Even so, the company has been continuing to aggressively expand throughout the country, which remains one of its biggest priorities, he noted.
Over the past fiscal year, the Seattle-based coffee chain has opened more than 650 new stores in the country, including 225 in the last quarter alone. It currently has nearly 5,400 stores across more than 200 Chinese cities.
Despite the recent lackluster performance, Johnson remains bullish on the market, pointing to what he called "the long game." "Our commitment to China, and our confidence in our long-term growth strategy in China, is unwavering," he said.
Starbucks fared better elsewhere during the last quarter. US store sales jumped 22%, while global sales were up 17% overall.
That did little to impress investors, however: The company's shares fell 4.2% in New York in after-hours trading on Thursday.
— By Michelle Toh Around Asia
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