Nobody knew how the tree grew popular online, but for about two months, villagers near Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, found drones flying over their wheat fields.One video captured a tree in the middle of a farmer’s field, just as the fog was about to dissipate, “like an ink painting”, Beijing News said. Then people began flocking to the area to take photos.It was the only tree in hundreds of acres of wheat field. The tourists called it the “lonely tree” and said that after seeing it, “you didn’t need to go far to be healed”.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGSCO
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS97
ENT5
WED · 2026-06-17 · 21:30 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0617-85326
NSR-2026-0617-85326Opinion·SCO·Human Interest
As China’s ‘check-in culture’ intensifies, it’s time to set some limits
Villagers near Xian, Shaanxi province, experienced an influx of tourists for about two months due to a single tree in a wheat field. The tree gained popularity online after a video captured it in a foggy landscape, described as resembling an "ink painting." Tourists dubbed it the "lonely tree," believing it offered a sense of healing.
Phoebe ZhangSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-06-17 · 21:30 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
97words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
5entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
Villagers near Xian, Shaanxi province, experienced an influx of tourists for about two months due to a single tree in a wheat field. The tree gained popularity online after a video captured it in a foggy landscape, described as resembling an "ink painting." Tourists dubbed it the "lonely tree," believing it offered a sense of healing. Drones were observed flying over the wheat fields, likely related to the tree's online fame. The article suggests this phenomenon is part of an intensifying "check-in culture" in China, implying a need for limits.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 4Entities 5
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Human Interest
Social Justice
Tone
Mixed Tone
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.30 / 1.00
Opinion-Heavy
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
The article suggests it's time to set limits on China's 'check-in culture'.
factual
Confidence
1.00
02
A tree in a farmer's field became popular online and attracted tourists.
factual
Confidence
0.95
03
Villagers near Xian experienced drones flying over their wheat fields for about two months.
factualBeijing News
Confidence
0.90
04
Tourists called the tree the 'lonely tree' and felt it was healing.
quoteTourists
Confidence
0.85
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 97 words§ 05
Entities
5 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations1
§ 06
Keywords & salience
9 termscheck-in culture
1.00
lonely tree
0.90
tourism
0.80
social media
0.70
photography
0.60
shaanxi province
0.50
xian
0.50
drones
0.40
healing
0.40
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.