In the summer of 2023, a curious travel trend began surfacing on Chinese social media feeds: middle-class parents were flying their children halfway across the world, not to Disneyland or a European city, but to Kenya’s grasslands. For China’s aspirational urban families, East Africa has suddenly become one of the most coveted overseas destinations, serving at once as a social-media bragging right, an educational experience, and a genuine escape.
From Social Media Photos to Safari Dreams
The craze started innocently enough. As Daily People magazine reported last year, young Chinese like Zhao Lingling were scrolling through their friends’ WeChat “Moments” when a photo caught their eye: the snowy summit of Mount Kilimanjaro rising above a herd of elephants. That single image was enough for Zhao to decide on her graduation trip: Kenya.
Once a niche destination reserved for retired wildlife photographers, Kenya has now been “hit by the traffic,” as Chinese travel insiders say, propelled into viral status by Instagram-like platforms such as Xiaohongshu. Here, glamorous photos of luxury safari tents, giraffe breakfasts, and endless horizons circulate with captions like “a once-in-a-lifetime trip.” For many middle-class families, Kenya has become the ultimate “top-tier” travel flex.
The Post-COVID Turn to Nature
Part of the appeal lies in timing. After three years of pandemic lockdowns, Chinese travelers are more eager than ever to step outdoors and see the world’s raw landscapes. Domestically, destinations like Xinjiang and Guizhou, known for natural beauty rather than cityscapes, are booming. Internationally, Kenya has emerged as the exotic counterpart: pristine wilderness, wildlife in abundance, and a sense of authenticity no theme park can replicate.
For parents, there is also an educational justification. As Daily People notes, summer “study tours” abroad have long been popular with China’s middle class, traditionally to Europe or the U.S. But Kenya is now entering the mix. A ten-day safari program, complete with luxury lodges, costs around 30,000 RMB (roughly $4,000–$4,500, significantly cheaper than many Western study tours, which can easily run twice that price. Whether the “learning” is substantive (beyond visits to an elephant orphanage and some wildlife talks) is debatable, but the idea of combining leisure with enrichment appeals strongly to Chinese parents eager to give their children a global edge.
The Safari Reality Check
Yet the romantic images on social media rarely capture the full experience. As The Bund magazine reminds readers with a recent article, safaris are not seamless luxury. Long drives over dusty, bumpy roads, unpredictable weather, and hours of waiting to glimpse a wildebeest crossing can test even the most enthusiastic traveler. Seeing the “Great Migration” is often a matter of luck and patience, sometimes requiring seven or eight hours of waiting in a sweltering jeep.
Nor is the infrastructure always polished. Travelers complain of outdated jeeps, occasional breakdowns, and hotels that leap from affordable in low season to nearly $1,500 per night during peak summer. The logistics—securing a skilled driver, navigating time differences, enduring long-haul flights—make Kenya a far cry from a simple beach holiday. But perhaps precisely because of these hurdles, the trip confers a sense of adventure and exclusivity that middle-class Chinese find irresistible.
Why Is This Important? Kenya’s sudden leap to the top of China’s “travel hierarchy” is more than a tourism fad. It signals a broader shift in Chinese perceptions of Africa. Once viewed primarily as risky, remote, and dangerous, Africa is being reimagined as an aspirational, even glamorous destination, thanks in part to closer China–Africa ties, the growing presence of Chinese businesses on the continent, and even popular reality shows filmed in Africa. As a result, Africa enters Chinese popular culture as a positive, mysterious, and desirable icon.
