3 . Just about 50 years ago, needing money to support my family — my novels weren’t best-sellers — I had the idea of taking the longest train trip imaginable and writing a travel book about it. The trip was improvisational (即兴的). I didn’t have a credit card. I had no idea where I’d be staying nor how long this trip would take. And I’d never written a travel book before. I hoped my trip wouldn’t suffer a lot, though it was obviously a leap in the dark.

I set off with one small bag containing clothes, a map of Asia, a travel guidebook and some travelers’ cheques. I was often inconvenienced, sometimes threatened, now and then disturbed for bribes (贿赂), occasionally laid up with food poisoning — all this vivid detail for my narrative (叙述).

What I repeated in the more than four-month trip was the pleasure of the sleeping car. Writing on board the Khyber Mail to Lahore in Pakistan, “The romance associated with the sleeping car comes from the fact that it is extremely private, combining the best features of a cupboard with forward movement. Whatever drama is being shown in this moving bedroom is heightened by the landscape passing the window...” A train is a carrier that allows residence.

I wrote The Great Railway Bazaar on my return in 1974, and it appeared to good reviews and quick sales. That’s the past. Nothing is the same. All travel is time-related. All such trips are unique and unrepeatable. It’s not just that the steam trains of Asia are gone, but much of the peace and order is gone. Who’d risk an Iranian train now or take a bus through Afghanistan?

But I’ve been surprised by some of the more recent developments in travel. I rode on Chinese trains for a year and wrote Riding the Iron Rooster, but now China has much cleaner and swifter trains and modernized destinations. A traveler today could take the same trip I took in 1986-87 and produce a completely different book.

All travel books are dated. That’s their fault that they’re outdated, and it’s their virtue that they preserve something of the past that would otherwise be lost.

8 . Sitting back in my seat, I can’t quite believe that I’m about to travel along the railway that many foreign experts claimed was “impossible”. The train has been racing along steadily since it left Xining. All this time, the song “Sky Railway” has been_________inside my head. The words “railways like massive dragons are winding among the mountains” seem particularly_________as I travel across the “roof of the world”.

I was one of the people who came from all parts of China to work on this railway._________years to complete, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a record of all of our efforts to_________the most difficult engineering challenges. How to_______the delicate ecosystem was among the top concerns.

The first_________to catch my eye is the splendid Qingshuihe Bridge, the world’s longest bridge built over permafrost. Look! A group of Tibetan antelopes is moving under the bridge, with some stopping to eat grass at their_______. Thirty-three passages have been built under the railway to allow the animals to move safely and freely in their natural_________. Wild animals such as these Tibetan antelopes have now been using these_________for years. They seem totally__________that we are speeding past at over 100 kilometres an hour.

To prevent__________to wetlands and grasslands, 675 bridges with__________about 160 kilometres were built between Golmud and-Lhasa. We even moved 140,000 square metres of wetland to a new area in order to protect its distinct ecosystem.

The journey has been flying by, and before I know it, we have reached Tanggula Station.__________at over 5,000 metres above sea level, this is the__________railway station in the world. In locations such as this, the thin air,__________weather and high levels of UV radiation presented perhaps the greatest__________ for railway workers. To make sure we stayed__________, several oxygen-making stations were constructed. We were also able to enjoy__________breaks in lower areas.

As we pass Cuona Lake, I feel a sense of pride and achievement. Using thousands and thousands of sandbags, we built a twenty-kilometre wall along the lake to protect it from construction waste. Cuona Lake is so close to the railway that I want to__________and touch its pale blue mirror-like surface. Water birds playing in the lake, and cattle and sheep wandering the grasslands bring the scenery to life.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been attracting people’s admiration for centuries. Now, thanks to our efforts, passengers from all over the country have been enjoying these magical landscapes. I am proud that we built our “impossible” railway, and did so with the care that the environment__________. It truly is an extraordinary “Sky Railway”.

10 . Going against the tide of flocking to well-known tourist destinations on vacation, a growing number of holidaymakers in China tend to spend their leisure time at lesser-known attractions. Reverse tourism (逆向旅游) has appeared as a   new trend among young holidaymakers in China.

According to data from an online travel agency, the number of rooms booked at hotels in less-traveled cities during the holiday was up 30 percent year-on-year. Bookings for four-star or five-star hotels in less-traveled places all increased ten times at a minimum. Some lesser-known scenic spots posted double-digit (两位数的) growth during the holiday. Baimaiquan Park in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, received 52,100 visits in the seven days, up to 15.78 percent year-over-year.

Besides crowds, some vacationers chose less-traveled places to save on the cost of trips to popular destinations. In addition, lesser-known attractions are not as “commercial” as developed ones and are able to offer more actual experiences and natural encounters.

Essentially speaking, total relaxation is becoming a real expectation for many people when they travel. Changes in demand may be the fundamental reason for the popularity of reverse tourism. COVID-19 is another key factor fueling reverse tourism. As preventive measures continue, traveling has an unpredictable quality. Travelers have thus become more cautious and tend to choose local attractions or places with fewer tourists.

“The rise of reverse tourism is not a bad thing,” said Zhengzhou Daily. It means that vacationers now have more options, which brings more possibilities to the tourism market. More importantly, it noted, the trend is set to force popular destinations to improve themselves instead of resting on their past honor.

Jiang Han, a senior researcher, said that reverse tourism will become one of the future directions for the market. To give a real boost to the tourism market, Jiang suggested that more efforts be made to tap the potential of underestimated, lesser-known destinations. It is necessary to dig deeper into the local customs and highlight the local characteristics to improve the quality of local tourism.