Die touristischen Attraktionen, die auf die Online-Traffic konzentrieren, versuchen alle, "Sterne" zu schaffen.

Open the short - video platform, and it seems that overnight, a strange geomorphological change has taken place in all tourist attractions across the country - ancient blocks with traditional Chinese architecture, knight towns, and theaters by the landscape. Everywhere there are "princes", "concubines", and "Zhan Zhao".

These are not cold sculptures but living people who can interact, lean against the wall, do hip - hop, and recite poems.

In spring 2024, the show "Matchmaker Wang" in Wansui Shan Knight Town Park in Kaifeng suddenly became famous and brought amazing commercial returns to this park, which was previously mainly operated with large - scale stage sets: Its turnover increased from 180 million yuan in 2023 to 540 million yuan in 2024 and reached 1.27 billion yuan in 2025. The annual number of visitors exceeded 24 million.

This is a strong signal.

So the script was quickly copied, and "Xue Bing Hou", "Sang Mu", and "Gong Gong" emerged like mushrooms after the rain. Countless young people who had the dream of an acting career or internet fame broke free from the shackles of traditional agencies or jumped out of their daily lives and flocked to this "artificial Jianghu".

They run, smile, and are surrounded, and they are consciously made the "core cycle" of a big story and inflame the emotions of the visitors.

This scene can be called the Chinese real - life version of "Westworld".

It's just that here, it's not the awakening of immortal robots that takes place, but the joys and passions of real life, the changing fear of losing online attention, and the question of how long one can stay famous.

01 An industrial revolution from people to "code"

Previously, tourist attractions earned money from entrance tickets and secondary consumption and competed for scenic beauty and historical culture.

Today, the logic of making money has changed.

When the landscapes themselves become too homogeneous, the core asset that tourists strive for is the "emotional value" - whoever can offer freshness and empathy can capture the users' attention.

The Wansui Shan Knight Town Park in Kaifeng is the officer school of this "industrial revolution". The former wedding emcee "Concubine" became the popular "Sun Erniang" here, who did hip - hop on the stage and commanded the crowd. Her successful video was the interactive scene "Xiyangyang! Huilangtai!" in February 2026. For this scene, the fans were willing to queue up for two hours in advance under the hot sun.

Sang Mu in the Fantawild Park in Zhengzhou transformed the interaction into a direct conflict with "body image anxiety". His "core cycle" was to encourage the fans with a princess - like allure. Thanks to this position, he created a monthly topic traffic of 4 billion yuan for the Fantawild Park in summer 2025, and his number of fans increased from 200,000 to 2 million. Wang Yinan changed from an insignificant stuntman in Gubei Water Town to the one whom people in the comment section asked to "pin me against the wall" thanks to his persona as a "wall - pinning lord".

This is the standard script for online attention: A distinct role concept + replicable and easily spread interaction gestures + countless snippets on social media. The costs are the actors' salaries, and the revenues are the viral spread and the rapid increase in ticket bookings.

Even former "real stars" have participated.

Ma Jingtao, 63 years old, has revived "Zhang Wuji" in Song City in Hangzhou. Zheng Guolin, 49 years old, has re - created "Li Shimin" in the history of Xi'an. Kou Zhenhai, 71 years old, has portrayed "Lu Zhenhua" in Shanghai.

The "low - level" participation of stars gives the new online - attention scripts legitimacy with the public's memories. It's really lively.

However, behind the shiny numbers lies the dangerous beginning of standardization.

If all tourist attractions mass - produce NPCs with a "core cycle", the players will fall into a brutal involution of the existing market. Whether they are lords, princesses, or knights, the interaction patterns are limited, while the audience's expectations rise infinitely. What makes tourists scream today, such as wall - pinning and princess - like allure, may seem cheap and boring tomorrow due to overuse.

The fate of Songcheng Performing Arts is a reflection.

Despite the frequent "hot topics" on social media because of the star - NPCs, the invitation of top stars to "come back to work", and the massive promotion of internet stars, the business performance in the first half of 2025 has unexpectedly deteriorated. Especially in the landscape stories in Lijiang and Guangdong, the turnover has decreased by more than 12% compared with the previous year, and the total profit has decreased by almost one - third.

Industry analysts say that the phenomenon that "online attention is not equal to consumption" is due to the fact that the industry has fallen into a homogenization dead - end. "Tourists may like it temporarily, but if they find the same impressions and landscape stories everywhere, aesthetic fatigue will occur."

This revolution in tourist attractions based on "people" will turn into a tiring fight for attention resources. Tourists will not pay for the same emotional pattern forever, especially when they find that the plots that touch them could also be played in the next tourist attraction.

02 When the fan community enters "Westworld"

Sang Mu didn't think that the "collapse" would come so suddenly. One day in January 2026, the interaction time between him and each fan was shortened to 30 seconds because there were too many tourists. A young woman who had come from afar experienced that in these precious seconds, Sang Mu was "distracted" when reacting to disturbances from others.

The sad video of the young woman has caused an uproar on the internet, and the event has developed into negative reports such as "240 yuan for 30 seconds" and "intentionally ignoring fans". Sang Mu's schedules have dropped drastically, from 29 shows a month at the peak to only two shows during the "May Festival".

"I always told my fans that 'the world is beautiful', but in the end, I'm the one who makes the world ugly." This muscular young man, 1.88 meters tall, is deeply remorseful.

Wang Yinan has daily problems.

To maintain fan loyalty, he even created a 12 - page presentation to note down and memorize the face and name of each regular fan. But with hundreds of thousands of fans whose makeup and clothes change daily, he still misnamed people. When the fan who had flown from afar heard his name mispronounced, his look darkened, and he turned around and left. The frustration was silent but strong. Sometimes, after a day full of smiles, he received a private message saying that he "just smiled wrongly and unfriendly".

These subtle moments have revealed the most sensitive side of the real NPC model.

They are not perfectly programmed codes but real people with emotions, fatigue, and limited memory. But the logic of the fan community demands absolute loyalty and error - free interaction.

In "Westworld", the awakening of the reception services begins when they recognize the falsification of their "codes". In the real "Westworld", the crisis of the NPCs lies precisely in the instability of their "codes". When online traffic pushes ordinary employees into the public eye and expects them to act according to the perfect standards of "star icons", any small fluctuation of human nature - whether it's physical fatigue, a bad mood, or simple memory mistakes - can lead to a "system collapse" and immediately invalidate the persona that guarantees online attention.

After the Sang Mu incident, the Fantawild Park will probably rethink this way of playing; every fan who is disappointed with Wang Yinan can take away a series of potential tourists. In terms of costs, these real NPCs are not only salary expenses but also risk points for the brand reputation. They inflame both emotions and the fuse of a bomb.

03 Famous or not, a zero - sum game

In this artificial Jianghu, not everyone can be a "Concubine" or a "Sang Mu".

Niu Niu, a music performance major at Nanyang Normal University, plays the "lamp seller" in the Qingming Shanghe Garden. She only has a little over a thousand followers on Douyin. When she sees the "Zhan Zhao" and "Xiao Liu" with hundreds of thousands of followers around her, she knows that she can be replaced at any time.

Xiao Liu's anxiety is more concrete. His knees are severely damaged from accompanying people on Mount Taishan. He dreams of changing from a stuntman to a fixed IP like Zhan Zhao and then entering the showbiz. He has even printed small business cards, distributed them in the park during the day to generate traffic, and done live PK shows at night, like an independent startup. But it often happens that he is excluded by the park's full - time employees and driven away by the security guards.

Even the already "successful" Concubine constantly feels new people chasing after her.

"The new NPCs are better and stronger. Of course, I'm filled with anxiety." Her work and life have long been merged. Even when she watches Douyin in her free time, she does it to study new ways of playing.

This is a system with an extremely pointed pyramid structure. Those at the top enjoy the dividends of sudden fame, but they also have to bear the uncontrollable online traffic and the risk of their persona collapsing. Those in the middle strive to climb up and collect fans with all kinds of "original" methods. Most people are at the bottom. They are the backdrop that maintains the immersion of the whole park and makes the world of the script come alive, but they have almost no chance to get a share of the online traffic.

The dividends do not flow evenly to everyone, but the anxiety is evenly distributed to all those involved. Tourist attractions rely on this "alpha - wolf effect" to attract visitors. But for most NPC employees, this job does not offer a future full of possibilities but a "temporary" occupation with high uncertainty. Their sustainability is far lower than that of the traditional acting industry. What's even more worrying is the question of whether the "NPC industry", which has emerged with the wind, can smoothly enter a new phase when the online traffic of the top players declines and the audience suffers from aesthetic fatigue.

04 The real - world projection of the online - attention economy

When discussing the deeper meaning of the tourist - attraction NPC phenomenon, one may perhaps find a sad consolation. For many employees, it's "more than just a show".

Before working as an NPC, Wang Yinan was inferior to his colleagues' progress in the acting industry. Here, he was healed by countless interactions. "NPCs don't just give unilaterally; it's more of a mutual approach between tourists and service staff."

Xiao Liu hopes that with his Sichuan Opera...