How to use Xiaohongshu (RedNote) to find places in China

What Xiaohongshu is

Xiaohongshu (小红书), known abroad as RedNote, is a Chinese app for photos and short videos. It looks like Instagram, but people in China use it like a search engine too, because most posts are reviews and how-to notes from people who actually went: cafés, restaurants, photo spots and walking routes.

For a Thai visitor the benefit is fresh information from locals and Chinese travellers, often more current than general guide sites. The catch is that content is mostly in Chinese, so you need a sensible way to search and read it.

What a visitor can look up

• Popular cafés and restaurants, with photos of real dishes.
• Photo spots and popular angles, such as old Beijing hutong lanes or the Huangpu riverfront in Shanghai.
• Queue and timing reports: quieter days, and whether booking ahead is needed.
• One-day routes and how people reached a sight.

It also covers everyday needs: souvenir shops locals really use, how to handle services at airports or high-speed rail stations, and places with picture menus that are easy to point at if you cannot read Chinese. Comments under a post often add useful updates, such as a price that has since changed or a warning that a shop has moved.

How to search in Chinese

Results are far better with Chinese keywords. The easiest pattern is the city name followed by a word for the type of content. You can copy the terms from the table below straight into the search box.

Why people in China search here first

Younger people in China often type a shop or sight into Xiaohongshu before they go, because they want recent photos, rough impressions from people who paid, and photo angles they like, rather than an official description. As a result, new venues trend here before they reach general travel sites, and on-the-ground details such as festivals or closed streets are often mentioned.

A simple way to plan a day with it

• Start with the city plus 攻略 to see popular one-day routes, then pick two or three stops that appeal.
• Search each place with 排队 to see when the queue is long, then pick a time.
• Copy the Chinese name into a map app such as Amap or Baidu Maps before heading out.
• Screenshot the Chinese name and address so you can show a driver or staff member.

The translation feature

Many versions of the app offer a translate button on posts and comments. Use it for the rough meaning, but always compare shop names and addresses with a map, because translations can be wrong or turn proper names into ordinary words. For a quick overview you can also run a phone camera translator over the screen.

If you cannot read Chinese, start with posts that have many photos and little text: look at menu pictures, shop signs and how long the queue looks, then translate only the paragraphs that matter. This saves time and avoids running a translator all day. It also keeps mobile data use down, since long videos use a lot, so load and save the posts you need while on Wi-Fi.

Signing up with a foreign number

1. 1DownloadInstall Xiaohongshu or RedNote from the App Store or Google Play before you leave.
2. 2Register by phoneChoose +66 and receive the SMS code on your Thai SIM. Sign-up options can vary by app version, so follow what the screen offers.
3. 3Set your interestsPick travel and food topics so the home feed shows relevant posts.
4. 4Save posts you likeSave posts and screenshot addresses so you still have them offline.

Privacy and things to watch

• Keep your real name, passport details and hotel address out of your profile and posts.
• Review location, camera and photo permissions and switch off what you do not need.
• Do not give personal data or money to people who message you privately.

Do not trust every post

A fair number of posts are paid promotions or reviews written in exchange for perks, and some photos are edited far from reality. Read several posts, check critical comments, and cross-check with reviews in map or restaurant-review apps such as Dianping, covered in our other app guides.

When reading restaurant reviews, look at whether a post shows several angles and mentions drawbacks too. Posts that only praise and share near-identical wording are often adverts. Check the shop name against its map position before a long trip, since popular places may have branches or lookalike names.

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