Platformized Tourism Circuits and Urban Space: Xiaohongshu, Wanghong Places, and Dongshankou’s Transformation

This study examines how social media platforms reshape urban tourism through the case of Dongshankou, Guangzhou, a prototypical Wanghong place (social media-famous sites). Drawing on digital geography, visual consumerism, and platformized-tourism theory, it identifies a triadic “algorithm–user–capital” circuit that transforms physical spaces into symbolic, aestheticized landscapes. Xiaohongshu’s algorithmic recommendations, user-generated narratives, and commercial integration collectively mediate digital visibility, guide embodied tourist behaviors, and drive material transformations, including homogenized retail formats, gentrification, and merchant displacement. Tourists become “digital prosumers,” enacting standardized poses, filter esthetics, and participatory archives that reinforce platform-driven spatial hierarchies. The recursive loop of digital mediation, affective engagement, and commercial conversion illustrates how Chinese-style wanghong ecosystems integrate state governance, e-commerce, and urban renewal. Findings extend digital capitalism theory beyond Western contexts, providing insights for the sustainable management of platformized tourism that balances social, cultural, and economic dynamics.