In Quanzhou, a coastal city in eastern Fujian province, the small fishing village of Xunpu has become an unlikely tourism phenomenon in recent years.

The village spans just 1.5 square kilometers and is home to fewer than 8,000 residents. Yet in 2024, it welcomed 8.5 million visitors and generated over 1.8 billion yuan ($250 million) in tourism revenue.

The biggest attraction is a traditional flower headdress, part of the local women's culture for centuries. The craft was inscribed on China's intangible cultural heritage list in 2008. For 15 years, it remained a quiet tradition. Then, in 2023, it exploded on social media. Young women began traveling to Xunpu specifically to wear the flowers and pose for photographs.

Why did this happen now? According to the Green Book of China's Tourism — an annual report compiled by the Tourism Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences — the answer lies in the emotional value that Chinese travelers now seek. The headdress, the report suggests, offers more than novelty. It embodies aspirations for beauty and connection to a romanticized past.

The Xunpu phenomenon, the report points out, is part of an ongoing fundamental shift in which tourism is moving beyond sightseeing and becoming a search for meaning and authenticity.

Song Rui, chief editor of the Green Book, notes that the timing of the book's publication is pivotal, as the country has entered its 15th Five-Year Plan period, which runs from 2026 to 2030.

"For the first time, the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan includes the goal of building China into a tourism powerhouse," Song said at the book's launch ceremony in Beijing in late March.