Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Summer in China isn't just about the heat, it's about the energy.
From buzzing night markets to packed theme parks, from small town charm to big city hotspots, the mid -year economy is sizzling.
Shops, streets, and tourist destinations are alive with activity, But what's behind the summertime boom?
We'll break it down for you today.
We're live from Beijing.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve. Thank you very much for being with us today.
And for today's show, I'm joined by Niu Honglin and Yuxin.
First on the program.
This summer, China isn't just sweating, it's innovating.
From high -tech sun shields to extended museum hours, the heat wave is sparking an economic revolution.
On one street, you'll see crowds layered in UV -blocking face -kinis.
On the next, tanning salons packed with Gen Zers chasing their golden hour glow.
But behind all these viral trends lies some serious business.
Sun protection gear, that's now a major market.
And resorts are leveraging pop culture trends to boost tourism.
The question isn't just how China's staying cool.
It's whether these sizzling strategies can actually evolve into lasting economic engines.
And, you know, Honglin and Yuxin, good afternoon to you both.
How's your summer going so far?
We're kind of dead in the middle of it right now.
Yes, it's really hot this year here in Beijing.
And a recent and also very common observation is that Beijing is being a little bit more damp and moisturized and humid than usual.
So it's like for Chinese people, we always believe that for the northern part of the country, it's hot and dry.
And the southern part is hotter and also humid.
But it seems like things are changing a little bit.
It's steamy outside.
Steamy. Yeah. And the humidity actually reminds me of my hometown.
See? It's like I'm going back to my hometown.
Oh, you're quite comfortable then.
Yeah. Yashin, you having a good summer so far?
I do. Actually, summer is, I think, my favorite season.
And I really like a lot of water sports, even though I don't know how to swim.
But I like to stay in water.
Dangerous. Yes, but fun.
Yeah, it is that time of year for sure.
Well, summer is in full swing, and that means that the summer economy is in full swing.
So let's talk about some various aspects of it.
Let's start with the gear, I guess.
This is always a fun topic, right?
The gadgets, the gear, the services that are helping people to beat the heat.
So what are the hot things this year?
Yeah, the market, all of the gears look quite hot, and the whole industry is quite hot, especially now we're entering the hottest of the year and I've seen people on the street more you know they're probably more fully covered than there in winter you can only see their eyes or sometimes eyes and nose so these kind of some protection gears physical some protection products like ultraviolet protective clothing UV that's the word and it's quite basic umbrellas for Sun sun protection a little advanced the sun blockers yeah and then face keenies you mentioned that that's that's a mask that covers
the entire face and neck and leaving the only your eyes and nose or sometimes just the eyes exposed i have all of those things yeah really yeah yes wow my my wife has that we go cycling all the time i've talked about that before and if we go out in the in the hot sun which we often do on the weekends then she has the gloves to the cool gloves to cover her hands and then she has the face kini as well which is a really smart thing and i totally get why people do it but when she bought it and put it on the first time i said oh my gosh darling you look like a beautiful squid that's a good message
and the reason i have all of it i think a lot of chinese people would have the experience of buying different types of the gear because they want to try them on you want to see which one fits you the best and for different summers it could be a little bit different because recently i've just learned that if you're wearing a face skinny and you think it can protect you from being you know getting the tan that you do not want it's possible that if you're keeping the entire area of your face to uh at a higher temperature it could also result in the darkness of the skin so not only sunlight but also temperature
matters as well which is why for a lot of the manufacturers these years um if they are trying to play the card of we are selling you the kind of gears that you can wear that will keep you cool keep you breathability yes and also cool fabric they're trying all those as well yeah and this is just a reflection isn't it of consumer awareness people's awareness of sun safety And I guess this is reflected on the e -commerce platforms, too.
Absolutely. Shopping festivals like 6 .18, that's one of the middle year shopping festivals in China, over 345 brands, including brands like Uniqlo and Beneath Under, that's a domestic sun protection brand, I would say.
Each exceeded 100 billion yuan.
That's about 14 million, sorry, 100 million yuan.
That's about 14 million US dollars in sales.
And more than 1 ,000 brands saw a year -on -year growth for over 500%.
Wow. The sun protection market is projected to reach more than 100 billion yuan.
That's about 14 billion US dollars by 2027.
So people are doing what they can to cover up the skin, but then there's an emerging trend where people are doing what they can to uncover their skin because tanning is becoming more popular here in China now.
You know, it's really good to see different types of aesthetics emerging, or it's not emerging, it's always been there, but it's like absolutely more people are following these kind of trend, right?
Right. Now, yeah, Chinese consumers are embracing this tanned skin style, especially among outdoor and fitness enthusiasts.
An article from The Paper, a Chinese media outlet, they view tanning as a symbol of health, fitness and freedom and a badge of strength and vitality.
And yeah, I think it's quite good seeing different styles.
Yeah. I asked Yuxin this morning, I asked him, have you ever gone to a tanning, used a tanning bed before, gone to a tanning salon?
His response was what?
That's the thing. When we say people are doing this, people are doing that, sometimes we're not talking about the same group of people, but the diversity and also different needs for different types of services and products are there.
And the market is trying and also managing managing to meet that need.
At the same time, we talk about fitness, we talk about health.
It's also very important and a lot of people, I don't know about you, Steve, are you familiar with the concept of the sanfu patch?
It's a traditional Chinese medicine thing.
It's logic is that during the very hot summer day, your inner hot energy is also at its peak, which means your pores are open, you are able to push out some bad energy in your body, and the Sanfu patch is there to help you to push out the cold, the dampness out of your system.
It's supposed to be very good for your health, which is why some people would choose to have that Sanfu.
Sanfu Tian is, according to Chinese calendar, the hottest day in the summer.
So you get the patch and you also go out, have a little bit sunlight, bathing in sunlight a little bit.
By saying bathing, I don't mean really bathing.
It's just, you know, staying in sunlight.
And that is supposed to be very healthy.
And the Sanfu -Tier -related products are also popular during summer days.
How do you use that?
You just stick it on your skin, on your back, and at specific acupuncture points.
Oh, so the location has to be that specific.
Yes, go to a doctor for that.
Interesting. There were three, fewer than three tanning businesses in Beijing back in 2009.
Now there's almost 300, so you can see a reflection of the training.
If that's your thing, just do it responsibly, though.
That's for sure. Yeah, so whether you like to cover up your skin or whether you like to get a little sun in the summertime, the gadgets seem to be for everyone.
The cooling gadgets.
gadgets. In fact, Yuxuan, I was watching you today with your cooling gadget, the desk fan.
Oh, yeah. I started using it actually even like one or two months ago, and I think I urgently need it when the AC is not that working so well in our offices.
But anyway, it's being so popular online.
We had a discussion about these little fans and small gadgets in summer.
The Chinese marketing summary is flooded with these kind of small and ingenious cooling gadgets such as solar -powered fan hats oh i haven't seen that yet i will i will get to that later but actually it is a quite a childhood gadget i can remember really yes we have a little fan no we have a little hat and there is a fan and there is a solar -powered panel panel at the top of it so that powers the fan yes huh is it supposed to be cooling you down or just helping with the air circulation it's supposed to like cooling me really is it working that's what i was thinking you know that the energy that little
solar panel is not that a function yeah there's there's those things um i saw at the store the other day um kind of a But you know those things you wear when you go on an airplane?
They go around your neck.
It's like a neck pillow.
But I saw those, but it was with cooling gel inside.
So I think what you're supposed to do is put it in the fridge or the freezer to cool the gel.
And then you put it around your neck like a neck pillow before you go out.
Traditional Chinese medicine talking.
Maybe not really good to have something attached to your body that is that cold.
You can talk to the person who was selling it.
high fever patch right you can also put them on your forehead i don't know anyway it's just another item that you can find also the pet talking there's there's a lot of pet owners here in china the pet cooling mats have become quite a hot item too right different like special materials in these pads and uh your pads are no matter is your dog or your cat or your snake they They can sleep on it with a very cool environment.
Why is snake in that list?
When I'm talking about making the environment cool, I think about this.
Yeah, I bought one for my dog many years ago and she didn't really like it.
So I thought, well, if you're not going to use it.
You bought one snake or a cooling pad.
No, I bought a cooling pad and I put it on.
She didn't use it, so I put it on my bed underneath the sheets and used it myself and it was amazing.
All right. So, yeah, lots of lots of fun gadgets to buy in the summertime.
And these are popular in many different spots, not just here in China.
Definitely. In fact, there is a manufacturer here in China just said that they have been manufacturing huge, huge umbrella that you use in a yard because during cold, excuse me, hot summer days, you might need one of those huge umbrella.
So that you can enjoy a little bit of outdoor time.
And the one that they are making is relatively more advanced.
You can adjust the angle of the umbrella so that it can definitely keep the area you're sitting down as a cool area.
And it has been, you know, these umbrellas are transported and exported to over 50 countries and regions.
And their revenue this year has exceeded 80 million yuan, which is also a 50 % growth.
And they are very happy about it.
And they're talking about also, as a business, not only are they seeing this hot business opportunity in the hot summer days, they also see the streamline of the applying process, selling their products outside of the country.
So it's helping them as well, the cool summer day.
um appliances too are always not only uh needed but it's a luxury to have in your home in the summertime too talking about uh refrigerators and mobile air conditioners those are seeing a lot of significant innovation strong exports too uh in in those markets uh which is great to see for other products like freezers they're selling very well the sales from a couple of months ago were up over 300 percent orders already exceeding 90 percent from orders from a couple of years ago so this is really really good news for for those types of things the cooling units air conditioning gotta be selling well
i would think as well internationally speaking yeah um for our like Like these kind of mobile AC units, not like traditional air conditioners that we see that's hanging on the walls, but they're like mobile ones.
They're sold to over 150 countries and sells up 10 % year -on -year.
And daily production reaches 5 ,000 to 8 ,000 units, which means globally people are needing these kind of devices to cool their summers down.
We also have a cooling blanket.
Do you have one of these things?
Yes. O -M -G. I didn't know these existed.
Is it like special fabric or material?
Yeah, it is. And it's not a gel inside like that neck thing I was talking about before.
It's just, I don't know actually, but one side is light blue.
That's the cool side.
And the other side is white, but you sleep with the blue side on your skin and it cools you down as you are sleeping.
It's incredible. cooling fabrics used in bedding sowed over 10 million meters this summer with an annual growth rate above 25 percent and steve like you said there are different types of cooling fabric when i was young the cooling fabric is the mat you put on your bed and the mat is made of bamboo there are yes the little yes it's very nice but it's a little hard nowadays it's it's evolving evolving, it's getting even better, which is why you see this growth in, well, in the numbers.
Yeah, in the cooling economy, right?
And, you know, I guess it should come as no surprise that because the daytime is when the sun is at its hottest, the cooling economy extends into the nighttime as well.
But we're talking about, yeah, night markets and things like that, of course, but we're talking about different experiences too.
Yes, you can have so much more experiences in the summer when it's cooler at night.
Actually, you can have some more like cultural or historical entertainment because museums are increasingly extending their opening hours and even staying open 24 -7 to accommodate more visitors in the cooler evenings.
And they're also introducing innovative experiences to, you know, become new traffic center in cities because they can offer you so much more immersive experiences when they're launching that kind of interactive tours, combining roleplay, live performances and mystery games themed on ancient Egypt that is happening in Shanghai Museum.
Oh, the museums understand.
They know the day is too hot for us to go out, so they're extending their working hours.
And for example, also in Sanxingdui Museum, they offer VR archaeological digs, allowing visitors to virtually excavate and handle Brown's relics.
Also, the museum collaborate with nearby villages to offer experiences like role play also as an ancient ceremony hosts drawing hundreds of visitors daily.
Maybe not in the middle of the day, but, you know, later nights having fun, enjoying a little bit of coolness.
Yeah. And keeping up with the tech times, too, to make sure that everybody has a good time.
Museums doing what they can.
But also Chinese cities, too.
Right. They're taking advantage of the nighttime experiences, their sports, there's different types of festivals.
Scenic mountain cycling after dark gains popularity.
In Beijing, a lot of cyclers, it's quite common. Nighttime, yeah.
And you can see them, just like a huge group of people go through that main street of Beijing.
It's like traffic. Absolutely.
It is. And a lot of these places, and they are emerging of cycling hubs.
They are offering food, drinks, even showers and gear maintenance and also rest spaces for these people to have a better experience of cycling at night.
I don't know if this is common, but I think now more and more people realize that staying in an indoor area where it's cool with AC on, cold drinks, definitely it's nice.
especially in a hot summer day.
But if you stay in these environment for too long, it's giving you this idea that I need a little bit sunlight, maybe just a little bit, which is why going outdoor, having outdoor activities in summer days is also quite important and traveling a little bit and how to deal with that people are having different innovative ways to do so.
For instance, some Some people would choose to travel to a relatively closer place, but not in the middle of the city anymore, which means the temperature is usually a bit lower, endurable even during daytime.
Just last weekend, I took my family and went to one of this little yard area in the suburban area of Beijing.
So, it's a little bit cooler and I get to stay in, it's kind of like in B &B place with a tiny little swimming pool.
So, my son get to play water a little bit and with barbecue in the yard. And after sunset, we'll be able to do a little bit barbecue and with several friends, you get to talk, you get to enjoy sunlight if you need.
but walk right into indoor area if you miss the modern civilization of air conditioner.
So it's very nice. Exactly, the summer vibe.
Yes, and that is provided in a lot of cities.
You do not have to live in Beijing or Shanghai to be able to enjoy those.
Actually, if you're in, for instance, Hangzhou, if you're in Suzhou, these places, There are so many of these really nice little B &Bs in the skirts area of the city Look, I'll be asking you online or offline where I can find those places That sounds amazing You mentioned Shanghai Shanghai is doing a lot of things as well, right?
130 plus themed events including Nanjing Road Nanjing Road, if you're not familiar That's kind of like a main tourist street where everybody hangs out They're hosting some immersive musical performances conferences uh which is a lot of fun for people um those events coincide with the implementation of the 240 hour visa free policy so that's going to help boost the international traffic there um so Shanghai's doing a lot of things Hangzhou you mentioned um they're doing a lot of things with tech the robots yes did you see the robot soccer match please tell me you did it's so cool And that is not the only
thing. They also have robot combats, robot dog walks, dancing robotic pets, etc. And we see that Quark's AI reimagined the Sun Dynasty poet as a digital travel guide offering historical anecdotes, introductions to Chinese tea culture, seriously.
Or food, like Dongpo pork, one of my favorites.
It's a browser, actually, mobile phone browser, and you can use all of these features in this app.
Really cool. Actually, I think that robot soccer match took place in Beijing, but it was Hangzhou that had the first ever robot fight night boxing match. Did you see that one?
I'm kind of obsessed with these.
They're not only playing soccer, but also fighting with each other?
Yeah, the boxing match is amazing.
One knocked out the other, but then the one that knocked it over kind of fell over it and fell on the ground as well.
I assume they're very easily knocked out.
Oh, it's really, really cool to watch. Those videos are really popular online now.
And also, night market is a very attractive point when summer is coming.
You know, one part of China, Gansu province in northwest China, and one city is called Dunhuang.
I had the chance to experience the Dunhuang night market.
Ooh, do tell. Really a vibrant and bustling scene.
you know you can get all of that authentic local cuisine wow it's so good and um i'll list some of them beef beef pancakes lamb noodles everything that is has that kind of northwestern style if you like a lot of these uh you know flower made food and also one of the city's famous landmarts is is the sand hill the mingsha mountain where people gather on the sand dunes for what they they call a starry sky concert oh cool so at night they sing together while enjoying this panoramic view of that whole city and it's an incredibly relaxing enjoyable experience amazing also in jeongsu uh the football
city league kicked off did you see the okay so if you don't know what we're talking about we covered this on round table it's this amateur football league that is taking place between the cities in cheongsu province and when we talked about it on the show it hadn't started yet right but we were speculating that it was going to be incredibly popular and it is oh my goodness 60 000 plus in attendance you know for that particular match that was 800 people shy of the 2025 china super league uh season attendance high wow oh people are loving it there so and those games they take place on the weekend
right because a lot of times business Business people are on the teams and students are on the teams, so they have to schedule the matches on the weekend, which is great for the summertime.
People can go out and enjoy that, too.
And so that more audiences can go to see the match, actually.
And when it comes to these kind of grassroots sports games, it's very authentic with a lot of local characters.
People celebrate the winning team in their local ways with their local style dancing and singing and of course local food.
It becomes a festival.
And making fun of each other with local memes.
Goes without saying, yeah.
All right. So how about the tourism sector there?
Obviously the summertime is a really popular time for people to get around and have some fun.
A lot of areas that is known for summer destination, actually regions known for their naturally cooler climates like Mohe City, the most north city in China, and the Changbai Mountain in the northeast are seeing a significant increase in tourist members.
And these destinations are leveraging their ecological resources to attract visitors seeking refuge from high temperatures.
If you want to get away from the heat, there are places you can go to do that.
Yes. And for this year, one thing that's really popular in the Chinese market is the kind of tours that's inspired by movies and TV shows.
They are getting really, really popular as well.
That is not seasonal, though.
But in summer days, you can pair it up with getting a little bit of cooling experience.
For instance, we see I think you shouldn't have shared about the leachy road.
and hot dramas including the Liqi Road are inspiring themed tourist streets in cities like Xi 'an which is a historical drama set in the Tang Dynasty and also Xi 'an is formerly Chang 'an so it has the historical root anyways and because it was the capital during that period so local authorities said tourist numbers grew by 12 % year on year from mid -June with incredible revenue from travel photography and themed dining.
And my feeling is that the Tang Dynasty -style kind of traditional costume is relatively cooler.
So I think, yeah, I think it's a good time to dress in those and take some tourist photography.
Very nice. And young people are loving it, too.
There was data from CMG Media, actually.
60 % of Gen Z tourists, They're choosing destinations based on popular shows.
And that's leading to a 200 % plus surge in destination searches and then obviously booming sales, too, with related products.
By the way, I bought some lychee the other day.
Two kilograms for 45 yuan.
Wow. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's the season.
And they're really affordable these days.
Hashtag shopping advice.
What about water? Yes.
It's the perfect time to cool off.
Tough canals, rivers, high tech hydro power hubs.
The thing is, people, I think, of course, a lot of people are living in the city and it's not that easy to find a place to play with water.
Right. And it can be quite dangerous to play, let's say, in little rivers and creeks.
right um but people are still finding ways to get a chance to get into the water and enjoy the coolness of water I've actually become a part of this summer cool economy I you know I went pedal boarding oh nice forest park in the southern part of Beijing and yeah I have to say that was was really amazing and enjoyable some was that in a lake or a canal it's in a little river okay yeah the river in that park so some people were just relaxing by the shore and they can uh like do camping and swimming in the water since it's a long narrow river and um i found it all very fresh and exciting when i we
i got we got to try like that stand -up pedal boarding right i remember I remember seeing a news story about people in Switzerland.
They can float home along the river.
It's called Erre River, right?
So they commute? They commute.
On a paddleboard? No, they just float in the water without anything.
Float home. Yes. You know, it sounded like such a relaxing way to commute.
Not to me. What? I don't know how to swim.
I wish I could do that.
I can drift a little bit in the river.
We did a little bit drifting in the river I talked about, just shared the past weekend.
And the thing about having those experiences in summer days is that when you're in a little boat and when you're drifting in the narrow river, definitely water gets into the boat and you're soaked and all of your clothing and everything is...
That's okay. It's totally okay.
It's summer. yeah that's what I'm saying you can enjoy that kind of fun in hot summer days but maybe not a cold freezing winter yeah what I didn't know and I discovered this last weekend is that you can swim in downtown Beijing you should not be I had no idea the canals that run the beautiful beautiful canals that run through the middle of Beijing I was walking along with my wife in the park and all of a sudden we look down and there's people swimming in the canals and they're playing playing ping pong next to the canals and they were playing cards and having snacks and just living their best
Beijing summertime life.
It was incredible. And I'm thinking I'm going to go back and go swimming one of those times.
I wasn't dressed for it on that occasion, but I'll take advantage at some point.
All right. So those are all the amazing things that people are doing that you can do in the summertime and all the gadgets that you can buy.
But here's, I guess, what will have to be our last question today.
Just quickly, can the summer economy last or Or is it more like strictly a summer economy, do you think?
I don't I don't think we need to, you know, limit ourselves to ideas about simply just extending the summer, just keep the summer economy.
Each season has its own unique, you know, scenery and character.
And with that comes different things to do.
And just like we now have a vibrant summer economy, we can also have embrace or a calm and cozy autumn economy.
Picnic time. And a winter economy centered around sports and outdoor adventures So each season is beautiful in their own way Definitely And also with the development of technology The reason we're enjoying so many of these fun is because of that It's because we get to have the gadgets we didn't used to have It's because we are embracing VR the way Not only it's used in necessary areas in technology but also in our everyday life.
So we don't know, maybe next summer some new cool things will show up.
Yeah, oh, well, not maybe, I'm sure they absolutely will, right?
It's the summertime, we're having fun and we hope that you are having your fun summer too.
