Ten years ago, Guo Zhihua was a cab driver in Xi'an, home to the world-renowned Terracotta Warriors from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). He loves them and came up with the idea of turning his three old houses into Terracotta Warrior-themed family hotels, spending 100,000 yuan ($15,600) to decorate his 260-square-meter properties with replicas of the famous artifacts. The interior design for the bedroom, bathroom and living room incorporates warriors, from miniature figures to those taller than human beings.

"My target customers are foreign visitors, to let them better understand the culture of the Qin Dynasty," Guo said, and sometimes the flats can be rented for as much as 1,000 yuan per night during holidays.

With the rapid development of the sharing economy, home shares have quickly gained popularity in China. It is predicted that by 2020, the transaction scale of China's home-sharing market will be 50 billion yuan, according to a report released by the Sharing Economy Research Center with the State Information Center.