Genshin Impact train spotted in Xiamen

Chinese city’s metro line is now served by a Genshin Impact-themed train

Marco Wutz | Jul 7, 2023

Genshin Impact train spotted in Xiamen /

Spectacular advertisements are nothing new when it comes to Genshin Impact – crossovers with fast food chains, putting teleportation hubs from the game into the actual Alps, helping a university recruit students, HoYoverse has done it all. You can add another publicity stunt to the list now, as a Genshin Impact-themed train has been spotted serving Metro Line 1 in Xiamen, a city with about 7.2 million inhabitants in the southeast of China.

Official artwork of different characters decorate each entrance to the train, welcoming the new passengers onboard. Inside, the train is outfitted with Genshin Impact-themed art as well, with main characters Aether and Lumine being present on every door. Small portraits of Paimon are found on the walls. You can find some impressions in this video on Chinese site bilibili.com.

This prominent real-life appearance of Genshin Impact isn’t necessarily an ad for the game itself, but promotes a green transportation initiative in collaboration with Alipay. The QR codes you see inside the train allow passengers that use public transportation via Alipay to collect credits, which in turn can be exchanged for Genshin Impact resources like Primogems and Mora. Passengers can also buy souvenir Genshin Impact train tickets.

This probably would have been a better fit for Honkai: Star Rail, which is decidedly more train-themed, but with Genshin’s popularity still being much more widespread, it’s probably the best choice for the promo campaign.

In terms of spectacular video game ads on transportation vehicles, the collaboration between Blizzard Entertainment and Korean Air to promote StarCraft 2 back in 2010 probably takes the cake: The airline painted the sides of a Boeing 747-400 and a Boeing 737-900 with the game’s logo and protagonist, Jim Raynor, using the planes on domestic as well as international flights.

Published Jul 7, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg