Zibo, an industrial city in the eastern province of Shandong, is China’s most popular tourist destination these days. The reason? Supposedly, it has the best barbecue in the country. The hype was kicked off by a group of students who documented a culinary trip to the previously unknown city on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok. In the meantime, tour buses are lining up outside the food mile of Zibo. Even express trains have been set up to get barbecue-hungry people quicker to their destinations. China’s state media see Zibo as an „exemplary case for old industrial cities seeking transformation.“ Critics of the hype speak ironically of „Shandong’s Disneyland,“ saying it represents the worst side of consumerism devoid of meaning.