On the Road: China on Holiday(1)

New Faces of Outbound Chinese Tourists
By Lam Li
English edition exclusive

It's the time of the year again for Chinese to take advantage of the week-long October golden holiday and have vacation en mass. EEO takes a look at the growing trend of independent Chinese travelers heading abroad for holiday and China's outbound tourism in general.

The Emerging Independent Travelers

Armed with a slick Canon Ixus digital camera, wearing casual cotton clothes and a pair of pricey hiking boots, Dong Qingquan stepped into the line of fire to capture on film a stand off between protesting students and the Nepalese police.

That was back in late 2005, when Nepal was shaken by a series of strikes and protests following King Gyanendra's seizure of power after he sacked the multi-party government, thus returning the Himalayan kingdom to absolute monarchy earlier that year. Dong was neither a journalist nor photographer covering the upheavals in the tumultuous, land-locked nation. She was simply a tourist, and it was her first trip outside of China. She did not hide in the hotel and avoided the chaos outside as most tourists were advised to do.

"I think traveling is a way to observe things with your own eyes, to learn. I want to be with the locals and learn about their way of life and their concerns," Dong says, recalling her first trip abroad.

Since then, Dong has fulfilled her goal of making trips abroad twice a year, visiting countries including India, Turkey, Malaysia, and North Korea in the following years. Unlike the stereotyped Chinese tourist image abroad, Dong does not move in obtrusive groups herded by tour guides; she plans her own itinerary, is not obsessed with shopping stops, takes initiative in learning local culture and language, and shows concerns over current affairs happening in places she visits. Trained in architecture and based in Beijing, Dong, now in her late 20's, is part of a new culture of "self-drive" travelers emerging in China, which is to say, they drive themselves on their travels.