Animal ears and pom-poms on fuzzy hats adorn tourists’ heads on the streets of the frigid northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, which is enjoying a surge in visitors driven by social media.Photos and videos taken around the city’s landmarks flood platforms such as TikTok counterpart Douyin and Instagram-esque Xiaohongshu — many featuring tourists from the warmer south.They’re affectionately known as “southern little potatoes”, a reference to their alleged smaller stature and cutesy winter gear that contrast with the area’s stereotypically coarse character.A search for “southern little potatoes visit the north” racked up more than 428,000 notes on Xiaohongshu.That’s where Chen Xiting, who works in e-commerce in the southern province of Guangdong, said she was inspired to visit.”It’s the quickest way young people get trip recommendations,” said Chen.She said she had noticed a sizeable number of fellow southerners.”I heard quite a bit of Cantonese, which we’re very familiar with, today at tourist sites and on the street,” said the 29-year-old, wearing a hat with dog ears and with only her face exposed to the air.Liu Rong, a student from Sichuan, said the city’s push for more southern tourists was clear from the surge in videos about Harbin he often watched with his wife.”These years, especially this year, Harbin’s cultural tourism has placed a lot of importance on paying attention to us southerners,” Liu said.- ‘Little potatoes’ go north -Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, one of three provinces that make up the “Dongbei” (northeast) region, where temperatures can reach -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) during winter.Bordered by Russia and North Korea, it is one of China’s poorest provinces, outperforming only neighbouring Jilin, Gansu, Hainan island and sparsely populated Tibet, Qinghai and Ningxia.But the first five months of 2024 saw the operating income of Heilongjiang’s cultural, sports and entertainment industries rise nearly 60 percent year-on-year, according to official data.Tourists spent 154 billion yuan ($21 billion) in the first half of 2024, up 171 percent from the first half of 2023.Popular novels and dramas set in the northeast have also helped spark a travel boom to the region.”A lot of southerners, which we call ‘little potatoes’, came over here for travel and made our Harbin very trendy,” Emily Liu, a local tour guide, told AFP.The online fame has been good for the travel business, said 30-year-old Jiang Zhonglong, energetically gesticulating in front of his tripod just metres away from Liu.He started working for a Harbin-based travel agency three years ago, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and said business was now much better.”So many little friends, southern potatoes, tourists have all come here,” he said.One night this month, the city’s commercial district of Central Street saw a steady stream of people walking on the cobblestone path under bright yellow lights.Ling, a 38-year-old from the coastal eastern province of Zhejiang, was there with his wife to “daka”, a phrase that means “punching in” but now describes visiting popular spots to share photos on social media.”We often scroll through (video sharing platform) Douyin and such. We often see videos promoting Harbin,” said Ling, who asked to be identified only by his surname.- ‘My hometown is popular’ -Ling told AFP he’d believed negative stereotypes about Dongbei in the past.”But we came here and found that things are pretty decent,” he said.”I’ve been yearning for a different cultural experience compared to where I come from — the weather and style are completely different.”Nearby, a steady stream of people ducked inside a shop selling goods from Russia — just a stone’s throw away.Foot traffic to the shopping street has tripled since 2022, said store manager Zhangzhang, who has worked in the area for more than 10 years and asked to be identified by her nickname.”My hometown has suddenly become popular,” she said, adding she was “extremely proud”.She said the store last year started selling more hats and scarves for travellers who “didn’t pack enough layers” — including those printed with the region’s classic red florals.”I think that this can help lift the economy of our Dongbei.”

Global stock markets mostly fell Monday in jittery holiday trading ahead of a potentially tumultuous 2025 that will see Donald Trump return to the White House.Wall Street’s three main indices slumped to end the day, adding to losses on Friday that have put paid to Wall Street’s usual holiday-period “Santa Claus rally.””We can’t drive major conclusions in a holiday-shortened and thin-trading-volume week, but last week’s price action looked pretty close to the narrative of rotation from tech to non-tech stocks that many investors expect to be the theme of next year,” noted Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.US tech stocks had led the losses Friday, with Elon Musk’s electric car giant Tesla shedding around five percent and AI chipmaker Nvidia off around two percent.Shares in Tesla fell 3.3 percent on Monday, although Nvidia shares managed to nudge higher.Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said there was no news catalyst for the weakness.”The selling interest, then, has profit-taking activity written on it with a P.S. presumably of rebalancing interest,” he said. “There isn’t a rebalancing push in the stock market this morning,” he said, however. “The weakness is broad-based.” Weighing on sentiment were worries about slower-than-hoped US interest rate cuts and possible higher import tariffs once Trump is inaugurated on January 20.Yields on US government debt dipped on Monday, but have pushed higher at the longer-dated maturities on worries about higher inflation and interest rates, with the yield on 10-year bonds hitting 4.63 percent recently.”If yields continue to hold at these levels, or push higher towards 5.0 percent, then this will be a strong headwind for equity prices,” said Trade Nation analyst David Morrison.This comes as investors choose the relative safety of a near-guaranteed five-percent return on funds in US Treasuries, compared with the uncertainty of stocks, he noted.In Europe, the main indices in Frankfurt, London and Paris all finished lower. Trading wrapped up for the year in Frankfurt, with the DAX rising 18.8 percent for the year, including breaching the 20,000 level for the first time.In Asia, Tokyo closed down almost one percent Monday, its last day of trading until January 6.Nissan dropped as much as 6.7 percent on worries about its mooted merger with fellow Japanese automaker Honda.Overall, the Nikkei 225 index gained almost 20 percent in 2024, finally surpassing the high seen before Japan’s asset bubble burst in the 1990s.In Seoul, Jeju Air shares fell as much as 15 percent after one of its planes crashed in South Korea on Sunday, killing 179 people.Another Jeju Air flight had to return after encountering a landing gear problem on Monday, the airline said.Korean authorities ordered an inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s carriers.Shares in Boeing fell 5.3 percent as trading got under way in New York, but recovered slightly after.South Korea was also hit with further political turmoil, with authorities issuing an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol after his declaration of martial law.- Key figures around 2130 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 1.0 percent at 42,573.73 points (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.1 percent at 5,906.94 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.2 percent at 19,486.79 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,121.01 (close) Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 7,313.56 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.4 percent at 19,909.14 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 39,894.54 points (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.2 percent at 20,041.42 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,407.33 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0401 from $1.0429 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2548 from $1.2579Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.80 yen from 157.89 yenEuro/pound: UP at 82.89 pence from 82.87 penceWest Texas Intermediate:  UP 0.6 percent at $70.99 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $74.39 per barrelburs-rl/bys/aha