Xiao You’s travel route map
Tibet, at an altitude of 4,588 meters by the sacred Lake Manasarovar, Xiao You sat quietly for an afternoon, basking in the sun and enjoying the scenery (photo provided by interviewee).
What can 14,000 yuan buy? Five iPad 2s? A designer handbag? Nowadays, urban white-collar workers in first-tier cities earn tens of thousands of yuan but still live a “grassroots” life, so 14,000 yuan really isn’t much. But 27-year-old Xiao You (a pseudonym) from Xiangshan used this money to travel across most of China and even visit Nepal, bidding farewell to her youth in style.
Quitting to hit the road
Xiao You, a 27-year-old from Xiangshan, Ningbo, is often called a “tomboy.” Having graduated from university seven years ago, she said she had actually been deliberating over this trip for a year. “The stress at work made me more irritable, and I started disliking myself.”
Earlier this year, Xiao You resolutely quit her job. “Some things, if not done now, will never be done in a lifetime.”
On June 6 of this year, an auspicious day chosen by a friend and with her family’s consent, Xiao You set off with a heart full of anticipation. Her first stop was Xiamen.
Coincidentally, the moment she stepped out of her house, she ran into a delivery person who handed her a postcard—it turned out to be a one-year delayed postcard she had sent to herself in Xitang the previous year.
Traveling mostly by hitchhiking
Once she set off, it seemed there was no end. “There wasn’t any specific plan; I just went where my feet took me.” Xiamen, Yangshuo, Kunming, Lijiang, Yubeng, Lhasa… Nepal, Urumqi, Kanas, Karamay… Xi’an, Ningbo—she passed through over 60 stops in 128 days, saving as much as possible along the way, and spent a total of 14,000 yuan.
While hiking in Yubeng, Yunnan, Xiao You met a fellow traveler who had hitchhiked all the way from the Yunnan-Tibet route, so she decided to try hitchhiking too. This way, she hitched all the way to Xi’an. Xiao You told reporters that her first time hitchhiking was nerve-wracking—she worried about getting into a bad person’s car and felt a bit embarrassed about flagging down vehicles. It took her an hour to get a ride.
Hitchhiking didn’t always go smoothly. “After leaving Namtso Lake in Tibet, I waited four hours without getting a ride—even when I stood in the middle of the road, no cars stopped,” Xiao You said. “Of course, I met many kind people along the way, and my nerve got thicker.”
“It’s still risky for a single woman to hitchhike.” Some netizens thought Xiao You’s actions were somewhat irresponsible. But Xiao You has her own “hitchhiking rules”: “I generally don’t hitchhike at night, I must know the direction before getting in, I usually stick to national or provincial highways—the phone map shows the directions, and if I’m off course, I get off immediately. I rarely take motorcycles, and I try to choose better vehicles.”
Xiao You is also particularly cautious. “When you’re alone, you can’t show off your valuables. I basically don’t take out my camera while hitchhiking, only using my phone to take pictures.”
“Being happy is what matters most”
After 128 days of traveling, at around 5 p.m. on October 11, Xiao You took a 20-plus-hour hard-seat train from Xi’an back to Ningbo. After arriving home, she slept for two solid days.
Xiao You said she experienced many “firsts” in these four months: staying in a youth hostel for the first time, traveling by hitchhiking for the first time… In a world full of strangers, she made countless friends with smiling faces. “This will be a memory I will cherish forever. Rather than saying it was a retracing of youth, it was more like walking away from youth.”
Xiao You continued to reflect on her journey, gradually organizing her travel notes. With smooth writing and beautiful photos, she shared them on forums, attracting over 60,000 clicks. Netizens were amazed, expressing all kinds of “envy, jealousy, and hate,” eagerly awaiting updates to her travelogue. Some even bookmarked them as “travel guides.”
“Looking back on the four months I traveled, it feels like a dream,” Xiao You wrote in her travelogue. “From east to south, all the way west, the great northwest… I can’t believe I traveled so far, drawing half a circle on the map of China.”
After four months of traveling, Xiao You got much tanner and became quite fit. “Sometimes during the trip, I was mistaken for a local.” After returning, she changed her Weibo bio to “Back from the trip, time to get fairer.” Xiao You is about to start a new job. “Now my mindset is broader, I won’t put too much pressure on myself—being happy is what matters most.”