Adventurous young Chinese hit backpacking trail alone

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Armed with backpacks, sleeping bags, budget travel guides, and hunger for a wider world long beyond their reach, backpackers from China are likely to be heading to a youth hostel near you.

Loosened travel restrictions and a booming economy mean that growing numbers of young Chinese have visas and cash to travel abroad as never before -- and many of them are opting for the free-wheeling coming-of-age journeys of counterparts in the West.

"Travel has changed my attitude toward the world in every aspect of life and work," said Cao Jiyin, 24, a psychology graduate from the eastern city of Hangzhou, who last summer roamed around India.

It's a dramatic change from past decades, when Communist China was isolated from the world and travel abroad was a rare privilege available only to a politically favored elite.

These days with more open borders and money in their pockets, most Chinese tourists opt for rigid package tours abroad.

But a growing band of young Chinese travel independently all over their own country, and now also backpack across Europe, Africa and other exotic destinations.

"Travel today has become fashionable for the young generation," Cai Jinghui, head of guidebook publisher Lonely Planet's Chinese-language editions, told Reuters.

"For young people, group travel is not real travel. It is a signal that you don't have the ability to explore," added Cai, sitting in a fashionable cafe crowded with Chinese and foreign backpackers.

HIGH DEMAND

Lonely Planet, the producer of hundreds of guides to exotic spots, started publishing Chinese editions only last year. It sold out all 5,000 copies of its initial run of Chinese-language Europe guides within one month.

Its goal now is to recruit young Chinese backpackers to write guide books for Chinese travelers with special attention to their own likes-and-dislikes -- such as finding a Chinese restaurant in Rome.

"We realized that we had underestimated the market for the European guide, we did not expect such high demand," Cai said.

The number of overseas trips from China has soared over the past decade, with some 35 million trips in 2006, compared to just 620,000 trips in 1990, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

This surge in overseas travel has matched China's rapid economic growth, as an urban middle class enjoys the benefits of double-digit growth.

Domestic tourism is also booming. Around 150 million people took to the road, rail and air during this year's "golden week" Labor Day holiday in May.