China Focus: Knowledge-driven experiential consumption gains popularity in China

CHONGQING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- In a pottery studio in the Rongchang district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, 9-year-old Yang Hanlin holds his breath, his small hands carefully shaping a mound of clay spinning on a wheel as his instructor offers careful advice.

This winter break, Yang, accompanied by his mother and sister, traveled to Chongqing from Luzhou in the neighboring Sichuan Province with a clear purpose: crafting his own piece of Rongchang pottery, a traditional art form with a history of over 1,000 years.

"I played with clay at school and it was so much fun," Yang said. "Today, I wanted to make a teapot. I didn't succeed this time, but I will make a better one next time."

The standard travel routine of visiting scenic areas, taking photos and buying souvenirs is undergoing change. Yang's holiday is part of new trend of "knowledge-driven experiential consumption," where travelers seek hands-on experiences and practical skills based on their personal interests.

The trend is reshaping travel patterns and lifestyles across China, unfolding in diverse forms across the country. At the Wuxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Theme Park in Huaihua City of central China's Hunan Province, visitors spend hours sitting beside Dong ethnic weavers, learning traditional brocade techniques and watching intricate patterns take shape in their own hands. And in Rizhao, east China's Shandong Province, even British university students could recently be found enthusiastically practicing the movements of Chinese martial arts.

The most important travel souvenir is no longer a factory-made keychain, but a new skill or a deeper cultural understanding.

Huang Xia, owner of the Shanyutang pottery studio in Rongchang, has felt the shift firsthand. "Today, tourists are looking for more than food and entertainment," Huang said. "Many who try pottery here come to love it, gradually developing new skills and hobbies."

This growing desire to learn something new is also extending into urban spaces. In a barista training room in the Jiefangbei business area of Chongqing's Yuzhong District, trainees gather around the counter, practicing latte art by shaping milk foam into clear heart and flower patterns as it blends with the espresso.

To meet growing demand from travelers and coffee enthusiasts, training institutions have rolled out short, engaging courses. Zheng Xinle, head of the Professional Coffee Athletics (PCA) coffee training program, said that it launched two-to-three-hour hobby courses in 2025, attracting strong interest. Nearly 1,000 participants obtained its enthusiast certificates in the first year of the program.

Even museums -- typically seen as serious institutions -- have joined the trend. At the "Pipashan treasure house" at the Chongqing Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, the boundaries of conventional museum visits are being redefined.

Visitors can step into a simulated archaeological dig site, using trowels and brushes to carefully remove soil and uncover replica artifacts like professional archaeologists. In the artifact restoration area, they can piece together broken pottery replicas and mend them with special adhesives.

"Our weekend excavation and restoration experiences are incredibly popular," said Lu Dingli, a docent at the venue. "Many families traveling to Chongqing make special reservations, hoping their children can gain a hands-on understanding of the archaeological process."

From pottery and coffee to simulated archaeology, these diverse experiences reflect a broader shift in China's consumer market. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from January to August 2025, retail sales of services grew 5.1 percent year on year, outpacing that of goods. Increasingly, consumers -- and younger generations, in particular -- are channeling more spending into experience-based services that offer both personal enrichment and skills development.

In 2024, the State Council unveiled a guideline on boosting the high-quality development of services consumption, calling for the improved supply of services in sectors such as culture, tourism and education, and the cultivation of new growth drivers in services consumption.

"There has been a notable shift in consumer preferences, from material goods to services," said Long Shaobo, deputy director of the Center for Public Economy and Public Policy at Chongqing University. "Standardized products in traditional cultural tourism can no longer fully meet demand. Experiential consumption, by contrast, emphasizes user participation and better reflects people's pursuit of richer and more fulfilling lives."

Long said that the trend is injecting new vitality into the cultural tourism sector, and transforming intangible cultural heritage and museum resources from static exhibits into interactive experiences. It is opening new pathways that combine cultural preservation with market value. ■