Turning a page on travel

The Late Gap Year (2009), written by Sun Dongchun, tells the story of a young man who gave up a white-collar job and started a three-month trip for a volunteer program in Southeast Asia. The trip turned into a yearlong travel. What's more, he even found his Miss Right and got married by the end of the story.

I Just Want to Stop and See the World, published in 2012, is a narrative by Chen Yuxin, who spent one year working and traveling around Europe at the age of 22.

In the book, she shares many of her exciting experiences, such as taking the trans-Siberian train, and joining a skinny-dipping club in Norway.

We Always Travel Hand in Hand, published in 2012, was written by a young couple. The husband, Zhang Qianli, was a photographer contracted to Getty Images while his wife, Tang Xiaomin, was a freelance writer. Their travel romance, complete with beautiful pictures, first went viral on a Chinese microblog. "More than 30 publishers contacted us and wanted to publish our story," says Tang.

Song Zhenshao, counselor at the psychological counseling center of Beijing Normal University, says: "To step out of ordinary life is a deep desire associated with freedom in people's hearts, and the hustle and bustle of city life intensifies the desire.

"Young people want to expand their horizons through travel, and reading travel books also satisfies the need, if vicariously."

But as more similar travelogues hit the bookshelves, the average sales for new travel books have dropped from tens of thousands copies to around 10,000 or even less. "The market for travel writing has become saturated," says Li Shen, editor of several travel books at the Beijing-based China Citic Press. "We have been very cautious in accepting manuscripts from new travel writers. We don't publish them unless they have a very unique perspective or unusual experiences."

The recent travel book Because It's There, published by Citic, was written by photographer Chen Yewei, who climbed 14 peaks at altitudes more than 8,000 meters above sea level, in 10 years.

Zhang Jinpeng, too, has been changing the direction in his writing. After A Decade of Backpacking, he published Why We Travel in 2012. His next book will be titled Don't Forget the Road Back Home.

"There are now so many travel books encouraging people to go out, I think I should write a book about how to come back," says Zhang Jinpeng, who is now managing his youth hostel in Lijiang.

After years of traveling, he has finally decided to settle down.

"When I first traveled around Europe, I learned that most youth hostels don't accept guests older than 35," says Zhang Jinpeng.

"I turned 36 on Oct 7. So I got to realize my dream when I was still considered a young man."

Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn