Authorities banking on driving ambitions

Zhu Guohua's latest, and proudest, achievement is helping a 71-year-old grandmother climb to the base camp at Qomolangma, the world's highest mountain, known in the West as Mount Everest.

Zhu, leader of a self-drive travel club in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, is currently on a trip to the Tibet autonomous region in the company of 25 fellow travelers in eight cars. The road trip, scheduled to last 23 days, will see the travelers wind their way through Jiangsu, Sichuan province, the Tibet autonomous region and Qinghai province before heading back to Jiangsu.

"I have taken self-drive travelers to visit Tibet more than 10 times. Every time I visit Tibet, I feel something different," Zhu, 40, said. "I'm always impressed by the Buddhist culture, the local people's religious lives and the landscape. Tibet is the best place in the mainland for self-drive travelers."