Malaysian tourists bury China hotel lobby in 1,200 Taobao parcels

A Malaysian tour group sparked a backlash in China this week after having some 1,200 Taobao parcels sent to their hotel in Xi'an, leaving staff to sort them by hand.

The pile-up came to light after the travel agency handling the group posted a video on Xiaohongshu, the Chinese social platform known internationally as RedNote, under the breezy caption, "When Malaysians visit China, is shopping all you do?"

The footage, since deleted, showed hotel staff scrambling to match hundreds of boxes to their owners at the reception desk, China Press reported.

One group member alone bought 50 different items on Taobao and needed an extra-large plastic bag to haul them up to her room, according to The Star, which relayed the China Press account.

Chinese internet users criticized the group for treating a hotel as a personal pickup depot and saddling staff with hours of unpaid work. "Hotel staff were forced to work overtime sorting and moving them, leaving them exhausted. The staff are not your personal parcel managers," one netizen wrote.

Others drew a line between sending a handful of online orders to a hotel, which they considered fair enough, and dumping more than a thousand on an already busy front desk.

Visiting shoppers increasingly use Taobao and similar platforms to order cheap goods to their hotels mid-trip, and Malaysian travelers have been swapping tips online about routing purchases straight to reception for the low domestic prices and same-day delivery during their stays in China.