A young female tourist from Chongqing has become an online sensation after a television interview in Hong Kong during the Easter and Ching Ming holiday went viral, largely due to her striking appearance and a subtitle that read "old city."
The Yan surnamed girl was interviewed by a television station at the West Kowloon High Speed Rail Station on April 4, the second day of the long holiday. Asked why she chose Hong Kong, the on-screen subtitle showed her saying: "Because Hong Kong feels like an old city, and it has a seaside area. It feels especially fun."
The combination of her fresh, elegant looks and the "old city" comment quickly sparked widespread discussion online.
The next day, Yan posted a short video on social media platform Threads to clarify. "I'm from Chongqing and I ended up on Hong Kong TV! The embarrassing thing is that I actually said Hong Kong has 'both' a city and a seaside, but the subtitle made it 'old,'" she wrote. She stressed her affection for the city, adding: "Hong Kong is so interesting and fun – how could I say it's old?" The television station has since updated the subtitle to "both."
The clarification post received thousands of likes and comments. Many netizens focused on her appearance, with remarks including "Luckily her beauty saved her, otherwise she might have offended all of Hong Kong," "Being pretty is a passport to the world," and "Super pretty, classy."
Others offered rational analysis, noting that describing Hong Kong as "old" is not necessarily a negative, with one commenter pointing out: "Most European cities are old, and Europe is a world tourism hotspot." Another praised Hong Kong as "a city that blends the new and the old."
