When the travel bug bites
By Zhang Zixuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-27 08:56
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Jin Xin says backpacking has done more to shape him than any other single activity.
He recalls a defining moment in 1998 when the then 26 year old found himself stranded after losing his money, credit card, ID card and overcoat on his first bicycle trip from Lanzhou, Gansu province to Lhasa, Tibet.
For two months, the Beijing bar owner cum T-shirt designer had to forage for food in garbage bins, sleep in public places, take on odd jobs, and hitchhike his way around. But he made life-long friends with complete strangers and proved to himself that he could survive even when penniless.
Unlike Jin, university psychology teacher Hu Deng had no specific place in mind when he started backpacking.
"I wanted to explore as many places as money and time would allow," says Hu, 39.
According to go2eu.com, arguably the nation's biggest travel portal, with more than 480,000 registered members and 1,200,000 travel notes and tips, China's backpacking crowd stands at 2 million, of whom 80 percent are aged between 18 and 35 and cover a range of occupations.
"Chinese backpackers tend to stick to pre-determined routes, while foreign backpackers tend to go with the flow," says Zhou Tong, marketing director of go2eu.com.
But despite the best preparations, surprises abound.
While backpacking in Cambodia in 2002, Hu's travel companion, a young woman, asked a food stall waitress in Siem Reap's central market for the nearest public lavatory. The girl tried all the English words she knew, like toilet, WC, bathroom ... But the waitress just didn't get it.
The smart girl then resorted to some graphic gestures and that did the trick.
"Language is never a concern," Hu says. He also strongly advocates "travelling as the locals do", like taking public transport, eating and shopping as the locals do, and blending into local culture, rather than posing in front of touristy landmarks.
One of his friends describes an experience that made a trip to Paris seem like a dream.
While walking through a quiet, historical alley, he heard a continuous murmur that seemed to emerge from nowhere. But a sudden exit at the alley corner opened on to a large, lively square, joining dozens of alleys and lanes, where hundreds of people sat drinking coffee and talking.
"I don't care too much for the scenery. I care more for people," Jin says, pointing to the portraits of people from western China hanging on the walls of his backpacker-themed bar in Nanluoguxiang, Beijing.
Zhu Zhen, who began backpacking in 1995, recalls a memorable encounter when he visited Vietnam in 2002.
Zhu came across a young Vietnamese fluent in Mandarin, while visiting the Museum of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign. The warm-hearted Vietnamese volunteered to detail Ho Chi Minh's entire life for Zhu in Mandarin.
He also guided Zhu to many places and took him home. They sat by the street and ate papaya like ordinary Vietnamese and even visited a local university, talking and singing with the students who showed great curiosity about China.
"We became good friends," Zhu says. "He sent me photos when he got married two years ago."
Having travelled to many countries in Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and America, Zhu believes backpacking "has helped me discover who I really am, and what I really want."
The 33-year-old, who used to work for a Japanese company, now writes for travel magazines.
Zhu says he was not at all surprised to learn that a friend had decided to move the whole family from Shanghai to Dali after backpacking around Yunnan province.
Hu Deng says that psychologist Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors (16 PF), such as warmth, reasoning, emotional stability and liveliness, can all be discovered, trained and improved through backpacking.