10,000 yuan for 6 months of traveling around China

Author: Wei Ming
Publisher:
Publishing Date: August 1, 2005
Features: Based on the author's real-life China loop tour, this book originates from a popular plan on online forums titled "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China," offering a feast of cultural tourism! "Join Wei Ming on the road—once in a lifetime of indulgence!" This was the theme of the popular loop tour plan "Choose Your Own Route: 10,000 Yuan Around China," which was once prominently featured on Sina News' travel forum and had a total of 100,000 clicks on various forums of Sohu. It once drove the shift of travel books in 2004 from simple provincial and regional guides to route-based, cross-regional travel. The same plan was also popular on websites like 21CN, Ctrip,, and blogs, with the China loop tour it covered being praised by netizens as "impressive and great travel routes." On August 1, 2005, China Youth Press officially published "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China" by the author Wei Ming.
Flexible Duration, Customizable Routes: "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China" includes dozens of classic and emerging travel routes, while also providing readers with the latest travel information. Readers can either spend 6 months continuously looping through China, or take a provincial tour in just 4 days, or even a 7-day or even 1-month cross-regional trip. This book presents a fresh, humanistic tourism perspective. It has been re-planned by Lin Dong of China Youth Press, and Wei Ming has chosen to narrate stories related to the history, culture, and ethnic backgrounds of various regions, offering a novel and engaging read. Lin Dong, who edited the best-selling 110,000-copy illustrated travel book "Tibetan" three years ago, successfully showcased Tibet's history, culture, and customs.
A Journey of Spirit and Secular Life: "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China" is also a journey of spirit and a feast of humanism. The author views culture from a diverse and open perspective, objectively recording historical figures and placing them in the broader context of life, survival, and spiritual pursuits. The book highlights the role of traditional Chinese culture like Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in secular society, such as the achievements of monks like Xuanzang, philosophers like the Two Chengs and Zhu Xi, and Wang Yangming. It also introduces the pure ideals of life once described by the writer Shen Congwen and depicts the rise and fall of the Jin and Huizhou merchants. The book portrays the secular life of ordinary people.
The book contains 300,000 words, 350 photos, and 220 color pages, making up half of the 440-page book, with a size of 20 cm × 28 cm and a price of 38 yuan. The book's editor-in-chief, Lin Dong, is currently the president of the Education and Culture Branch of China Youth Press and has edited books like "Tibetan," "Xinjiang Feast," "May Flower Blooms in Cambodia," and "Golden Seal on Red Background," the latter of which was on the bestseller list of the Beijing News for seven consecutive weeks. The book's photographer, Wei Ming, is from Danyang, Jiangsu. Her great-grandparents included the linguist Lü Shuxiang, the aesthetician and educator Lü Fengzi, and the Buddhist master Lü Cheng. Born in Beijing, she transferred from Fudan University to the renowned liberal arts college Smith College in the U.S. for her undergraduate degree. After graduation, she worked as a reporter for the U.S. newspaper《》and as the Beijing chief representative of the global human resources consulting firm Hays.
Among the 350 photos in the book, 11 are full-page color images. The text is diverse, including humanistic stories, knowledge points like world geological parks, Xinjiang Muqam, and thin-skin dumplings, and well-designed "Special Notes" that provide practical travel information.
Connecting 8 Major Tourism Regions from 2006 to 2010: When writing the book, Wei Ming incorporated her recent travels to places like Wuyuan and Qiandongnan, designing a very practical and cost-effective China loop tour for readers. The book covers all provinces (regions) of China, visiting 500 classic and emerging attractions, and records 21 world natural and cultural heritage sites. Coincidentally, among the 9 major China tourism regions planned by the National Tourism Administration for 2006, Wei Ming's routes already connected 8 of them (excluding the Mekong River corridor).
Wei Ming set off alone shortly after the Qingming Festival, following the route she had planned in winter. She traveled continuously, sometimes joining other backpackers but mostly alone by train and car. In Tibet's Ali, she rode a post office's mail delivery vehicle, witnessing strange phenomena like auroras and moon halos. She trekked through the mountains in Sichuan's Emei and climbed Tianzi Mountain and Huangshi Valley in Zhangjiajie Forest Park. During the rainy season, she traveled through Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan with Western backpackers. By the Mid-Autumn Festival, she finally returned to Beijing.
China is vast, and new scenery always emerges. Before writing the book, she traveled to Guizhou's Qiandongnan to experience the heavenly melodies of Dong ethnic group's singing and to the Zhangye Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang to get close to red-crowned cranes. In Mohe, the northernmost city in China, she flipped through travel diaries left by fellow travelers. All this made her feel lucky and happy.
At the end of the book, Wei Ming also drew an ideal China loop tour route for fellow travelers, though it requires the courage to take the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. As a postscript, she used the widely loved "Dawn and Dusk of the Inn" by Wei Ming—“But once you’re on the road, it’s best to walk it through with seriousness.”
Affordable Book Price: China Youth Press' Education and Culture Branch has published many travel illustrated books. "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China" uses lightweight paper and has 440 pages, with 220 color pages. The book price is 38 yuan.
Participation in Design: The book's design was completed by the renowned book design company Jinxiu Shengyi, with Wei Ming participating in the design. Most of the 350 photos in the book are by the author herself, who was responsible for selecting the images to ensure they matched the text. During the busiest times, Wei Ming worked for two consecutive nights without sleep, later discovering she had set a personal record of 65 hours without rest.
Special Cover Design: The book's cover features a special design. Wei Ming selected a passage about the water town Wuzhen and arranged it in vertical text to showcase the depth of Chinese culture. To convey a specific mood, she and the designer decided to omit punctuation and replace it with spaces, aligning with the writing habit of classical Chinese, while still allowing readers to pause for breaths.
Cover and Back Cover Design: The cover primarily uses bright yellow, black, and red. The horizontal red text reads "Around China," while the vertical ochre text reads "A Journey of Spirit and Humanistic Feast," highlighting the theme of cultural China beyond just budget travel.
Back Cover with Netizen Comments: The back cover of the book is grand, featuring enthusiastic comments from 8 netizens. Some express skepticism: "Do you know what it’s like to keep moving? Without intense passion and strong will, you can’t do it." Others express desire: "I will definitely go this time. I swear! I must live for myself!" Still others praise: "This is a very brave plan. China has too many stories. You can hear magical tales from ancestors from a toothless old man, though he might not be able to read a single character. This is the culture passed down through generations. You’ll never know it unless you go there yourself. Moreover, these hidden cultural elements are also very vivid creative subjects, whether for photography or literature."
Travel Tools: In "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China," the author records her real-life journey using the most common modes of transport for ordinary people: trains, buses, and ferries.
Impressive Routes: Before setting off, the author planned a loop route from Beijing to the northwest, then Xinjiang, Tibet, Sichuan, the Three Gorges, and so on, connecting major new and old attractions in all provinces. This includes dozens of practical routes. Over 6 months, she traveled and enjoyed the beauty of China, hiking instead of taking cable cars to most famous mountains to see more natural landscapes and encounter more interesting things. Her experience was praised and emulated by many, hailed as "impressive" and "great routes." The routes introduced in the book are marked in the "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China Route Map."
Traditional Culture and Rural China: Every province (region) in China has rich natural, humanistic, historical, and cultural content. This book helps those who can’t travel temporarily understand the endless changes and charm of China’s natural scenery. More importantly, the author does not just record her travel experiences or introduce scenic spots like a typical travel guide. Instead, she selects topics from the changes in natural ecology, human survival awareness, and the relationship between rural China and traditional culture.
"10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China" emphasizes a profound cultural and historical sense. The author tries to understand the ancestors of people living in different altitudes and natural environments across vast China, where they came from, what hardships they endured, why some left to migrate, and how later generations learned to coexist with nature. In chapters like "Ecological Hongcun" and "Spring and Autumn of Earthquake-resistant Towers," readers can see the history of ancient people fighting against natural and human disasters.
Along the way, there are breathtaking places like Shangri-La and paradise on earth, representing humanity’s spiritual home, which is why we today show great passion for protecting world heritage and the environment. Along the way, there are also harsh natural environments and man-made damage, some of which are shocking. The book frequently mentions the harmony and conflict between paradise on earth and environmental protection, such as the return-to-lake initiative in Guizhou’s Caohe Lake and the story of a girl selling cacti fruits by the beach in Sanya while studying part-time.
The Baiyue Ethnic Group and Three Teachings Culture: The Chinese nation has undergone thousands of years of cultural integration, including the fusion of northern nomadic peoples with the Central Plains and the Baiyue ethnic group with the Han. At the same time, China’s ethnic minorities still retain deep historical roots and customs. Understanding the differences in ethnic customs can make the journey more enjoyable. For example, the tradition of "wedding night" in Chinese ethnic groups may have origins in the customs of the Li ethnic group in Hainan. Also, why do many ethnic groups celebrate "March 3" (close to the solar term Guyu), why do so many like to play the reed pipe, and why do so many encourage freely expressing love? The book provides answers to these questions.
The author views culture from a diverse and open perspective, objectively recording historical figures and placing them in the broader context of life, survival, and spiritual pursuits, achieving "thorough and empathetic understanding." The book showcases elite culture like Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, such as the role of monks like Xuanzang, philosophers like the Two Chengs and Wang Yangming in cultural construction, introduces the life ideals once described by the writer Shen Congwen, and also depicts the secular life of ordinary people.
Although traditional secular culture constructed by elites is gradually fading and some have been buried in history, they have left traces and once inspired our sense of justice and cultural conscience. The book also covers the economic life of ancient people, especially the culture-oriented Huizhou merchants and Jin merchants who valued cultural education.
In the section "Old Street and Ancient Pingyao," the history of () is reviewed, revealing the early development of China’s financial industry. Meanwhile, in the chapter on Shanxi, it describes the role of the escort () in the martial arts world, who, despite their mysterious aura, also played a practical role in safeguarding ancient economic development. Wang Zhengqing, who founded the Tongxing Gong escort agency, practiced martial arts for fitness in his youth, maintained social order in his 30s, and opened the agency for a living in his later years. Such people should not be overlooked by history.
The book is deeply researched and covers fresh topics rarely seen in travel books, with a unique writing perspective.
Practical Information: This book is also very suitable for those who love to travel. Many travel books today are written based on others’ travel diaries, lacking personal experience, which often leads to discrepancies between descriptions and reality when it comes to landscapes, attractions, and travel tips. "10,000 Yuan for 6 Months Around China" comes from the author’s firsthand experience, offering accurate and reliable information, making it easy to use. It is not a detached fantasy but provides detailed and thoughtful arrangements, including transportation between attractions, accommodation options, and phone numbers.
Detailed Cost Calculation: The book carefully calculates and breaks down the costs, aiming to save money and time. Many attractions offer half-price tickets for students, so young people can "stretch a penny into two" when paying for these expenses. Following the hand-drawn route in the book, the cost is slightly less than 12,000 yuan.
Cost Breakdown:
Transportation: The book prioritizes convenience and practicality. The 10,000 yuan includes transportation, attraction tickets, and accommodation. The train ticket prices provided are not from the author’s original trip but the latest information. At the beginning of each chapter, the author provides a budget for necessary expenses, listing them in detail. These include transportation costs between attractions, such as: in the table of the second chapter, the transportation cost is: the cost of taking a bus and train from the last attraction in the first chapter to the first attraction in the second chapter. Train tickets for trips over 6 hours are calculated based on hard (hard sleeper) prices. Shorter trips are based on hard (hard seat) prices. During the summer, air-conditioned express trains are used. Local short-distance transportation is not included in the 10,000 yuan because people take buses for work and school daily.
Tickets: The book also provides the prices of tickets for most attractions, based on the peak season prices as of June 2005. Some information comes from the author’s recent travels and phone inquiries, while others come from news about price adjustments. Since most China loop tours are concentrated in spring and autumn, the author provides peak season ticket prices.
Accommodation: The book also provides many accommodation-related details. Accommodation costs vary, based on the prices of beds in youth hostels, family inns, and guesthouses in different regions. Most of the time, the actual current prices of specific inns are used, with peak season prices or the average of both peak and off-peak seasons.
Other Specific Information: All this and other specific details are included in the book in the form of "Special Notes" to facilitate use during the journey.
Additionally, some attractions are introduced to some extent but are not included in the 10,000 yuan. The author specifically marks these with asterisks in the tables and text.
Meals: Meal costs are not included in the 10,000 yuan. Generally, 10–30 yuan per person per day is sufficient.
Time Arrangement: According to the book, you can spend 6 months continuously looping through China, or take a short provincial tour in as little as 4 days, or a regional trip of 7 days or even 1 month.