The late birds get the world

Li Jin and his wife Yang Jingli are part of the late bird, early bird set. Late birds because, as with most Chinese, the realization that the wide world is theirs to enjoy came very late. Early birds because prevailing rules 10 years ago meant that Li could retire when he was just 50.

Even 10 years before that, Li, a middle school teacher, had foreseen what that would mean for him and his wife－more time to spend time with one another－and they decided that one element of this would be travel. So at the age of 40 he promised her that at least once a year they would pack their bags and go traveling somewhere.

For Li, honoring that promise has become almost routine, and he spends part of almost every day scouring travel stories and tips online as he thinks about the couple's next travel adventure. In earlier years they traveled to most parts of China, but as Chinese turned their look outward, Li and Yang, too, became more adventurous, setting off for more distant parts. They are now planning to travel to France and the Netherlands.

"By seeing more of the world, my wife and I have become much more broad-minded," says Li, of Guiyang, Guizhou province. "It has benefited our relationship, too. We appreciate each other more after having done so many different things together."

A recent report by the online travel agency Ctrip said that about two-thirds of those age 40 and above surveyed traveled three to five times a year, and more than half of them inquired online about travel or made reservations online themselves. About 75 percent said they had grandchildren, but 70 percent said they did not have to look after a grandchild or that they only needed to lend a hand occasionally.

They are thus taking the opportunity to cash in on the it's-never-too-late-to-learn era spawned by the internet, and by turns embraced the-world-isyour-oyster ideal resulting from China's reform and opening-up process that has been running for 40 years.

Among those of their age they may even come across as hipsters, as adept at using a smartphone to book and pay for independent travel to some far-off exotic location as using it to find a local restaurant or to pay for their groceries.

As an experienced independent traveler Li records the couple's journeys on the tourism website Mafengwo. That means not only that months or years down the track they can reminisce on a certain trip by poring over old photos, tickets and receipts, but that other Mafengwo users can take a peek at the same memorabilia and be inspired to undertake the same kinds of adventures.

"On group tours, itineraries are tightly scheduled, so with most places you go to you can only snatch a fleeting glance," Li says. "However, traveling on our own we can tailor-make itineraries to our tastes and timetable and take time to see whatever takes our fancy."

Despite their travels, their command of English is still meager, but that is no obstacle to them, and in 2017 when they went to the United States they used Google Translate to communicate with locals. These days, too, there are so many Chinese tourists on the road, or Chinese studying overseas, that it is often easy enough to seek help from them when they are in a spot of bother or simply want some tourist tips.

Li's craze for travel goes back to an epic trip he made 35 years ago, cycling from Guiyang to Beijing when he was 25 in the summer of 1984－a journey of 3,300 kilometers that took 45 days.

The idea of doing the trip came to him three years earlier when he read of a young man who had traversed the country, cycling from Harbin, Heilongjiang province, to Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

"That really inspired me," he says. As with many Chinese, bicycles were very much a part of their everyday lives, something on which he commuted to work.

Li realized he was relatively unfit, so he spent two years preparing for the trip, running 10 km a day, cycling 80 km every Sunday and also took time to learn self-defense techniques, among other things.

Finally, wearing a straw hat, and taking with him a raincoat, an umbrella, a very rudimentary camera, films and a few bicycle repair tools, the 25-year-old set on his trip, buttressed by financial support of 400 yuan ($57) from his parents, about what 10 months' salary in his job as a middle school physics teacher was at the time.

Of course, ways of arming yourself with the required information were far more limited in those days, and as part of his preparations he had borrowed a gazetteer that described scenic areas throughout China and bought a map book.

"It was a fantastic experience, and I learned a huge amount. I passed through many scenic areas, and what I saw was stunning."

Most solo adventurers can recount stories not just of solitude but of loneliness during such undertakings, and to cope with any such problem, Li's companion was a transistor radio. That and the encouragement of the many people he met on the way were a tremendous encouragement to him, he says.

He recounts becoming lost on a mountain path one night and encountering a teenage boy who he feared harbored ill intentions toward him, before the youngster reassured him and led him to a local hotel, capping off this hospitality by handing Li the remaining cooling ice blocks the boy had been selling earlier.

"It was a tough journey, but my great willpower forced me to keep going. After doing that I had the courage to face any difficulty."

On that journey it cost 1 to 2 yuan for a night's hotel accommodation with simple bedding and no television, and he needed a letter of introduction issued by school authorities and his employee card to be able to check in.

After reaching Beijing and being hailed as a hero, he spent 10 days there before boarding a train for the much tripper quick back to Guiyang, over two days. He was only able to afford a hard seat costing more than 30 yuan, an amount he would have to work for almost a month to earn.

Today such a rail journey would take as little as nine hours, and a flight between the two cities about three and a half hours.

"Guizhou is a mountainous province, and back then train journeys to other provinces were incredibly long and expensive. It's hard to believe that now."

Another thing that has greatly changed over the years is what Chinese people know about tourism, he says.

"Even if people had spare cash in the 1980s, few had any idea about how you went about touring around. For most people it's now just a part of everyday life."

Like Li, Chen Shenglin, 64, of Shanghai, attributes his lifetime love for tourism to his early travels. Chen, who retired from a State-owned corporation as a senior engineer two years ago, says he has traveled with his wife to more than 20 countries.

The first time he went abroad was in 1989 when he and three colleagues stayed in a town near Lake Constance in southern Germany for a month doing work training. It was also the year the Berlin Wall came down.

They lived in homestays, and the locals took them to nearby border towns in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on weekends.

"At the time it was rare for Chinese to travel abroad, and that experience had a profound influence on me," Chen says.

"I realized how important it is to separate work from the rest of your life and decided then to take my son traveling somewhere at least once a year."

He and his wife started to travel with their son when the boy was only 4, the destinations including Malaysia and Thailand when the boy was 8.

Chen says travel has helped change his ideas about education, making him less of a disciplinarian when it comes to his son and schooling. He argues that children should do what they want to do, rather than what parents think is best for them.

His son has now also grown to love traveling, something that has encouraged the couple to undertake their trips independently. As with many older Chinese, language barrier is one of the biggest problems to surmount in undertaking overseas trips, Chen says.

"When a foreigner is talking it's all double Dutch to me. When I check in to hotels or ask for directions I use mobile translation apps."

He uses Google Map to get route. When he's lost, he will ask passersby by showing the photo of his destination.

He and his wife traveled to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic this year. His son wrote down their itinerary in English in advance, and they had it at the ready whenever it was time to buy tickets. He also downloaded an app that gives real time updates of European train timetables.

The couple also went with their son and his wife on a road trip of New Zealand using a campervan, a vehicle Chen says is an ideal choice for families and older people because they can cook their own food and stay overnight at picturesque campsites.

"For older people the main thing you need for travel is courage. Health is also important, and you ought to get regular exercise.

"Older people also need to be able to use the internet, and for some that's not easy. As the mobile internet booms I'm shifting from the computer to mobile apps to read travel tips and make travel plans."

Chen keeps a diary of his travel experiences and shares them on the tourism website Qyer, on which he answers questions about travel. He has also made a few short video guides for older people on how to travel independently.

A lot of the influence in swaying him toward such travel has come from people in other countries, he says.

"What impresses me is that many older people elsewhere don't live with their children and they enjoy that independence."

This summer Chen and his wife stayed with an Austrian in her 70s who with her husband runs accommodation listed on the site Airbnb.com, cooking breakfast for guests and treating them like family.

Meeting people from all over the world had been a fulfilling experience that made it feel as though she was prolonging her life, Chen says the woman told him.

LI JIN/CHEN SHENGLIN/FOR CHINA DAILY</figure>