Wang Yuanyuan

    cheekywang@hotmail.com

    AS a woman aged around 30, Chen Yanling leads a more exciting life than many other people of the same age in the city.

    Over the past 10 years, she has been to more than 30 countries and regions. Several of her travel stories about Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have been published in leading travel magazines.

    However, for Chen it is not about how many countries she has been to, or how many friends she has made. “I travel to please myself, not to show off,” she said.

    In Chen’s own view, she is an ordinary woman who loves to backpack and hike around the world, experiencing activities like mountain climbing, diving and hiking.

    A well-known netizen at qyer.com, a popular travel Web site in China, Chen is famous for her journeys, and traveling on a budget. “I will travel no matter how poor I am. One should do something crazy in their youth,” she said.

    “I read her microblogs all the time. She is such a wonderful woman, full of passion and dreams. Travel makes her open-minded and warm-hearted,” said a woman called Wu Lingling, who is also a member of qyer.com.

    “Travel makes more mature and sensible. There are a lot of things to see and learn on the road,” she said.

    Exciting trips

    Chen has always been in love with travel. As a university student she went to Thailand and South Korea with travel agencies.

    After graduation, Chen started working at a foreign-funded company in Shenzhen, making friends with a colleague who was also a fan of travel. “He told me that I could only have real fun if I traveled without agencies. No matter where, or why you travel, you will let go of something in your mind and exchange it with new things during the journey,” she said.

    For her first DIY trip in China, Chen went backpacking with some “seasoned travelers” across the country.

    “The first trip I made abroad alone was to the Philippines. I fell off a horse and almost ended up in a volcano. It was so dangerous, and I might have lost my life. My waist was injured as well,” she said. “I will never forget the pain at that moment. I did not know what to do or what to think, just calling for help and crying. I thought I would be dead.”

    It took a long time for Chen to recover from her injuries, but the incident has not stopped her.

    “Another reason why I love travel so much is that unexpected things happened on journeys,” she said.

    Chen has been to the Middle East and Africa several times and encountered various challenges from facing robbers and swindlers to meeting with traffic accidents and earthquakes. Fortunately, she made it through each experience stronger.

    “Personal safety is very important to a traveler,” she said. “I was chased by some gangsters in India. I was scared but stayed calm, running to a crowded place to seek help.”

    There can be accidents on any journey, so Chen prefers not to travel alone. She suggests people travel with one or two companions.

    Broadening Chen’s

    horizons

    Travel has also changed Chen’s habits and awakened her to new experiences. Chen has developed a love of diving in the sea, taking pictures and trying delicious food from around the world.

    Chen said that the most valuable thing she gets from traveling are the friendships she makes along the way, being proud to have made “maybe 100 friends.”

    Friends are important, Chen said. “When I feel sad or in a low period, it is always them who have never given up on me and helped me. Their encouragement helps me get back on track and face any difficulty in front of me,” she said.

    Besides friends, Chen has also met with romance on the road. Once, a foreign traveler even proposed to her. However, she never said yes to him.

    “I have a high standard about my Mr. Right. I’d rather be single than be with someone that I don’t have strong feeling for,” she said.

"I travel to please myself, not to show off.”

— Chen Yanling, who has been to more than 30 countries and regions over the past 10 years