More people skip agencies, make own plans

The majority of Chinese travelers prefer to travel on their own instead of following arrangements made by travel agencies, a senior official said.

In 2015, China counted more than 4 billion visits by Chinese travelers within the country, and more than 3.2 billion of those were tourists traveling on their own or who took road trips with their own cars, according to Li Jinzao, director of the China National Tourism Administration.

"Their average spending surpassed 1,000 yuan ($153)," Li said, adding that the numbers show China has entered an era of mass tourism in which travel is no longer the sole purview of the rich.