‘Real-life’ pictures of yachts, helicopters, luxury cars, horse riding excursions used to boost business profile, chance of romantic encounters
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenYating Yangin BeijingPublished: 2:00pm, 15 Apr 2026An online industry has emerged which allows people to create “wealthy” personal profiles on social media in China by buying “luxury lifestyle” photographs for as little as one yuan (15 US cents).
The pictures feature travel scenery, gourmet dining, golfing, skiing and other activities on e-commerce platforms.
The photographs are typically priced between one and eight yuan and are marketed as ready-made content for social media posts or for building a curated online persona.
They are usually delivered via cloud storage links.
In one such online listing, the product priced at just 0.1 yuan claims to include over 7,000 high-definition “real-life” images covering travel and daily life.
