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Visitors to Erhai lake say photography sets
offering everything from rare animals to fields of
brightly-colored flowers are essential to creating their Kodak
moment.
"A lot of my friends have come here to take their photos, so I
thought I would try it too," said Zeng Xinyue, 18, a recent high
school graduate.
She decided to visit after seeing videos and photos of Erhai
lake on Douyin, a video platform owned by startup ByteDance
Technology.
Erhai is one of China's biggest freshwater lakes and a backdrop
to the city of Dali, which drew 47 million visitors last year,
more than triple the number in 2010.
Hotels and homestays have sprung up along a 50-km (31-mile)
stretch of lakeside road to accommodate tourists. But officials
ordered some hotels demolished after President Xi Jinping during
a 2015 visit called for the lake to be protected.
The selfie seekers can take a picture with wooly alpacas
imported from South America's Andes Mountains. Others can take a
picture sitting in a hanging bubble chair or on a mirror-covered
platform.
A package of 35 photos costs 199 yuan ($29), said Zhang Hongtao,
who manages a photo stall.
Yan Mengjie, a tourist from Shanghai, wore a sequined dress with
a mermaid tail as she struck a pose in a bubble chair. She was
surprised by the half-demolished buildings nearby.
"I did feel a little disappointed, because it didn't look like
the pictures," Yan said, referring to images she had seen on
social media.
"But I can photoshop it," she said.
(Reporting by Tingshu Wang; Writing by Huizhong Wu; Editing by
Ryan Woo and Darren Schuettler)
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