# China Trending Scraper - Douyin, Baidu, Toutiao (热搜 热榜) (`wakachobi/china-trending-scraper`) Actor

Real-time Chinese trending topics and hot lists (热搜, 热榜) from Douyin, Baidu, Toutiao, 36Kr, The Paper, Sina and NetEase in one unified dataset: rank, title, link, heat value, label and category.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/wakachobi/china-trending-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Cobi Hilliard](https://apify.com/wakachobi) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 trending items

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## China Trending Scraper: Douyin, Baidu, Toutiao and Sina hot lists (热搜 / 热榜)

Get the **real-time trending topics of the Chinese internet** in one run and in one format. This scraper reads the
public hot lists (热搜榜, 热榜, 排行榜) of **7 Chinese platforms**: Douyin 抖音热榜, Baidu 百度热搜, Toutiao
今日头条热榜, 36Kr 36氪, The Paper 澎湃新闻, Sina 新浪热榜 and NetEase News 网易新闻. Each entry has its rank, title, link, heat value (热度), label (新 / 热 / 爆)
and category. No login, no cookies from your account and no API key.

Only sources whose robots.txt allows automated access are included.

Built to **run on a schedule (for example every hour)** so you can build a history of what China is talking about.

### What data you get

- Platform and board (which list the entry comes from), in English and Chinese
- Rank on the list (1 = top)
- Title (the topic, search term, article or video title, in Chinese)
- Link to the topic, search results, article or video
- Heat value as a number (`hotValue`), plus what it measures (`hotValueType`: heat index, views, reads, comments
  or saves). Chinese units such as 万 and 亿 are converted, so "374万" becomes `3740000`
- Label shown on the list, such as 新 (new), 热 (hot), 爆 (exploding), 首发, 独家 or 辟谣
- Category, where the platform gives one (Toutiao, The Paper)
- Description or excerpt, image URL, author or source, and publish date where available
- The platform's own ID for the entry (`id`), handy for de-duplicating across scheduled runs
- `fetchedAt`: when the list was collected (the same value for every item in one run)

#### Supported platforms and boards

| Platform (`platforms` value) | Boards | Heat value means |
|---|---|---|
| Douyin 抖音 (`douyin`) | `hot` 热榜, `rising` 实时上升 | Heat index |
| Baidu 百度 (`baidu`) | `realtime` 热搜, `livelihood` 民生, `finance` 财经, `sports` 体育, `phrase` 热梗, `novel` 小说, `movie` 电影, `teleplay` 电视剧, `car` 汽车 | Search heat index |
| Toutiao 今日头条 (`toutiao`) | 头条热榜 | Heat index |
| 36Kr 36氪 (`kr36`) | `hot` 人气榜, `video` 视频榜, `comment` 热议榜, `collect` 收藏榜 | Reads, views, comments or saves |
| The Paper 澎湃新闻 (`thepaper`) | 热榜 | None (rank only) |
| Sina 新浪 (`sina`) | `all` 新浪热榜, `hotcmnt` 热议榜, `minivideo` 视频热榜, `trend` 潮流, `sport` 体育, `ent` 娱乐, `auto` 汽车, `travel` 旅游, `ai` AI热榜 | Heat index |
| NetEase News 网易新闻 (`netease`) | 热点 | None (rank only) |

#### Sample result

```json
{
  "platform": "douyin",
  "platformName": "Douyin 抖音",
  "board": "hot",
  "boardName": "热榜",
  "rank": 1,
  "title": "西藏那曲发生7级地震",
  "url": "https://www.douyin.com/hot/2709008",
  "hotValue": 11691595,
  "hotValueType": "heat",
  "label": "热",
  "imageUrl": "https://p11-sign.douyinpic.com/tos-cn-p-0015/ok9BHFAvBo3fOg2afqPZA8C0cLIAQPybDiQjEg~noop.jpeg?…",
  "id": "2709008",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-22T14:45:15.000Z",
  "videoCount": 14,
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-22T22:20:47.299Z"
}
```

Every item has the same core fields: `platform`, `platformName`, `board`, `boardName`, `rank`, `title`, `url`,
`hotValue`, `hotValueType`, `label`, `category`, `description`, `imageUrl` and `fetchedAt` (missing values are
`null`). Some platforms add `id`, `author`, `publishedAt`, `videoCount` (Douyin) or `tags` (The Paper).

### How to use

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `platforms` | Platforms to collect. Default: all 7 |
| `baiduBoards`, `douyinBoards`, `kr36Boards`, `sinaBoards` | Which lists to read on platforms that have more than one. Default: the main list |
| `maxItemsPerPlatform` | Keep the top N of each list (each board counts as its own list). Default 50 |
| `maxItems` | Stop after this many items in total. Default 1,000 |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Apify Proxy settings. Datacenter proxy works for all platforms |

Example inputs:

```json
{ "platforms": ["douyin", "baidu", "toutiao"], "maxItemsPerPlatform": 50 }
```

```json
{ "platforms": ["baidu", "sina"], "baiduBoards": ["realtime", "finance", "phrase"], "sinaBoards": ["all", "ent"], "maxItemsPerPlatform": 20 }
```

```json
{ "platforms": ["douyin", "kr36"], "douyinBoards": ["hot", "rising"], "kr36Boards": ["hot", "comment"] }
```

A run takes about 10 to 20 seconds. Hot lists are short by nature: most have 20 to 50 entries (Douyin's rising list
often has fewer than 10), so you get at most that many per list.

#### Run it on a schedule

Trending lists change by the minute. For monitoring, create an **Apify Schedule** that runs this actor **every hour**
(or every 10 to 30 minutes for breaking news). Each run saves a full snapshot with the same `fetchedAt`, so you can
chart how a topic climbs and falls, and use `platform` + `id` (or `title`) to spot topics that are new since the last
run. Send each snapshot to Google Sheets, BigQuery, Slack or a webhook with Apify integrations.

### Pricing

**$1 per 1,000 items**, charged only for items saved to your dataset. The default run (7 platforms, about 310
items) costs about $0.31. For hourly monitoring, keep only the top of each list: the top 10 of 7 platforms is 70
items, about $0.07 per run or roughly $1.70 a day.

### Use cases

- Media monitoring and newsrooms: see what is trending on Douyin, Baidu and Toutiao right now
- Brand and PR teams: get alerted when your brand or a competitor enters a Chinese hot list
- Market and consumer research on China: track topics, products, cars, films and TV series over time
- Content creators and marketers: find trending topics and memes (热梗) to react to
- Data science and AI: build time series of Chinese public attention, train or ground models on current events
- Cross-platform comparison: the same story ranked on Douyin, Baidu, Toutiao and Sina in one table

### FAQ

**Is it legal?** The scraper reads only the public hot lists that every visitor sees without logging in, at a polite
pace, and does not get around any login, paywall or captcha. It collects topic titles and links, not personal
data. You are responsible for how you use the data, including copyright and local laws.

**Do I need a Chinese IP or residential proxy?** No. The lists are public and were tested without any Chinese
proxy. The default Apify datacenter proxy is enough.

**Are the titles translated to English?** No. Titles are returned in the original Chinese. Add a translation step
in your own pipeline if you need English.

**Why is `hotValue` empty for some items?** The Paper and NetEase do not publish a heat number, and Douyin's rising
list has none either. Their entries still come with a rank. Heat numbers are not comparable between platforms; use
`hotValueType` and compare within one platform.

**Why are some Baidu entries missing?** Pinned official topics are skipped so the ranks match the organic list.

**Why are some well-known platforms not included?** Some sites' robots.txt files disallow automated access to the
endpoints that serve their hot lists, so they are left out on purpose. Only sources whose robots.txt allows
automated access are included.

**What about Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou or WeChat?** They need a login or signed requests, so they are not included.

### API

Call it from any language with the Apify API or client libraries (`apify-client` for JavaScript and Python), or
connect it to an AI agent through the Apify MCP server, for example to answer "what is trending in China right now?".

# Actor input Schema

## `platforms` (type: `array`):

Which Chinese platforms to collect hot lists (热搜 / 热榜) from. Each platform returns its own ranked list. Only sources whose robots.txt allows automated access are included.

## `baiduBoards` (type: `array`):

Baidu hot lists to collect (only used when Baidu is selected).

## `douyinBoards` (type: `array`):

Douyin lists to collect (only used when Douyin is selected).

## `kr36Boards` (type: `array`):

36Kr rankings to collect (only used when 36Kr is selected).

## `sinaBoards` (type: `array`):

Sina News hot lists to collect (only used when Sina is selected).

## `maxItemsPerPlatform` (type: `integer`):

Keep only the top N items of each platform list (each selected board counts as its own list). Most lists have 20 to 50 entries.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many items in total across all platforms.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Datacenter proxy works for all platforms.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "platforms": [
    "douyin",
    "baidu",
    "toutiao",
    "kr36",
    "thepaper",
    "sina",
    "netease"
  ],
  "baiduBoards": [
    "realtime"
  ],
  "douyinBoards": [
    "hot"
  ],
  "kr36Boards": [
    "hot"
  ],
  "sinaBoards": [
    "all"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerPlatform": 20,
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "platforms": [
        "douyin",
        "baidu",
        "toutiao",
        "kr36",
        "thepaper",
        "sina",
        "netease"
    ],
    "maxItemsPerPlatform": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("wakachobi/china-trending-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "platforms": [
        "douyin",
        "baidu",
        "toutiao",
        "kr36",
        "thepaper",
        "sina",
        "netease",
    ],
    "maxItemsPerPlatform": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("wakachobi/china-trending-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "platforms": [
    "douyin",
    "baidu",
    "toutiao",
    "kr36",
    "thepaper",
    "sina",
    "netease"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerPlatform": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call wakachobi/china-trending-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,wakachobi/china-trending-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bhz9E5Ltgte8aaycb/builds/FrfIDEO2PH6aFS3Z5/openapi.json