'Special forces' tourists mar China's travel recovery

Spending down amid new trend of seeing as much as one can for as little as possible

SHANGHAI - When graduate student Cai Zhishan decided to spend her Labour Day holidays in northern China, she wished she had enough money to hire a car for the more than 4,000km round trip.

Instead, she chose "travelling like special forces", a new trend in China that has emerged as a symptom of the underlying weakness in household consumption, and which is casting a shadow over a post-pandemic recovery in domestic tourism.

Ms Cai, 22, mostly took slow trains and buses as she made her way from the city of Hangzhou where she studies, around the northern Shanxi province, and back.

To get to the ancient temples, pagodas and grottoes she wanted to visit, she walked roughly 30,000 steps a day.

For accommodation, she chose overnight trains and cheap hostel beds.

Over nine days, she spent just 2,500 yuan (S$480).

"I don't have much money, but I like to travel," Ms Cai said. "I can control the expenses, to go to many places for the least amount of money, but it is really tiring."