Everything, everywhere, all at once with ‘military-style travel’ – how Chinese Gen Z are taking full advantage of their freedom after Covid lockdowns

One recent Sunday, Ubon Yu – a university student in Changsha, in China’s Hunan province – rushed to a railway station and hopped on the 12.30pm train to Guangzhou in neighbouring Guangdong province.

He checked his travel notes on his phone, and made some last-minute changes to his two-day schedule.

“I wanted to check in at all the attractions and try the food in Guangzhou within a limited amount of time,” the 22-year-old recalls. He calculated that, to include all of the culinary attractions he had marked, he could probably squeeze 20 scenic spots into his 48-hour stay in the city. There was very little room for error.

Welcome to a new way of travelling in China, popular among university students, that treats sightseeing as a type of challenge.

The objective is to visit as many tourist hotspots as possible, and often within a short amount of time. As a result, they need to plan their itineraries with military precision. Chinese media have already coined a term for this latest trend: “military-style travel.”

After enduring years of periodic Covid-19 lockdowns, China’s Gen Z are keen to spend their weekends and short breaks visiting as many attractions and sampling as much food as possible – and often on a tight budget, which is why they can only afford to make quick trips.

Call it budget “revenge travel” that requires rigorous planning, superb execution skills and strong willpower.

Yu says class schedules at university are relatively flexible, which is why he can spend his weekends travelling to nearby cities.

“Most of the time we leave on a Friday afternoon, so we can sleep on the overnight train and start our day as soon as we arrive,” he says. Self-discipline is key, he stresses.

“Even if we slept late the night before, because we are on a long tour, we will get up at 9am to finish our ‘tasks’. If we are travelling on weekends, we will choose the night train for the return trip on Sunday.

“That will save money on hotels – and we won’t miss class the next morning.”

Travel data shows that during the most recent Ching Ming Festival, also known as tomb-sweeping day, 62 per cent of tourists in China born after the early 2000s chose to journey at night and 30 per cent of them visited more than four scenic spots in a day.

“We have wasted three years because of the coronavirus pandemic. I want to travel more in China while I still have the energy and time,” Yu says. Thus, since travel restrictions eased in early January 2023, he has travelled “military style” to cities such as Wuhan, Guilin and Guangzhou, usually for up to three days at a time.

“It’s a race against time,” Yu says, adding that the challenge of such journeys takes him out of his comfort zone. “Physically I feel more tired but mentally also more fulfilled.”

Yu filmed his 48-hour Guangzhou trip and uploaded the video on Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like social commerce site in China. With bloggers like Yu sharing their experiences and travel strategies online, other young people have started hopping on the trend.

Zhao Yu, a final-year university student in Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province, decided to do something crazier.

He travelled to four cities in five days and, right after his late March trip, went on to visit another four cities in five days in early April. Each trip, including fares and accommodation, cost him around 1,700 yuan (US$250).

“I didn’t feel tired, and I wanted to challenge my limits,” Zhao says. After he saw this travel trend on Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, he decided it was challenging and wanted to try it when he still had the free time to do so.

Before he starts an internship next month, Zhao – who has finished all his courses at university – is making up for not being able to travel at all during the coronavirus pandemic.

“This might be the only opportunity I can travel like that, and I am afraid I won’t have time to do it again in the future,” he says.

The 23-year-old says that, although time is short and he rarely gets to rest, he still wants to keep going and hit his targeted attractions during the day. He feels more motivated when there is a goal.

After three years of Covid-19 restrictions, to be able to persevere at something and achieve goals gives Zhao a sense of accomplishment.

“It makes my life more meaningful.”