Road less traveled

Photos provided to China Daily

According to the UN World Tourism Organization, there was a 42 percent year-on-year increase in spending by Chinese travelers in 2011, the latest year when data is available.

China is now the third largest source of travel spending globally. Chinese travelers took 83.2 million international trips in 2012, growing at an explosive 18.4 percent over the previous year. While travel to Hong Kong and Macao still tops the most visited destinations list, regional Asian destinations like South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam also dominate the top 20. The US, Italy and France also figure in the list. Other destinations, such as Iran, Sri Lanka and South America, are also attracting increasing interest.

"When we started Lonely Planet 40 years ago, there were no visitors to China at all, and no Chinese went out to the outside world," Wheeler says.

"Now this one huge country has opened up to the whole world and has also gone out to the whole world."

Technology has changed travel greatly in recent decades, but Wheeler believes there's still much to discover in the world.

"I think if people want adventure they will always find adventure," he says.

"Every year I go somewhere that I feel it's quite adventurous getting there. And when I get there, someone has gotten there in a more adventurous way."

Three years ago, a Lonely Planet bicycle team spent four months riding through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. Wheeler did two weeks in Tanzania and Malawi, while Chinese traveler Jin Xin rode the part of Central Africa.

"When we first started doing Lonely Planet books, I was much younger and had much less money. And, therefore, the books were aimed very much at young people with very little money," Wheeler says.

"I still think traveling is very important for young people. They can learn so much when they travel."

Photos provided to China Daily