Self-drive trips to neighboring Mongolia allow travelers to access magnificent views and rich folk customs. （Photo provided to China Daily）
"The Kazakhstan visa application requires a face-to-face interview," Li says.
"If we tour the five countries in Central Asia, each tourist needs to pay 15,000 yuan for visa applications alone."
He hopes the government's efforts will improve the situation, which he believes will open the floodgates to potential self-drivers which, in turn, will boost the domestic travel market.
"At the moment, many Chinese tourists in the northwestern part of China will turn back once they make it to Dunhuang (in Gansu province)," Li says.
When the border tourism market opens, they will have to visit Xinjiang before they drive to countries such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Li explains.
Self-drive trips are especially popular among photographers, because they enable them to see breathtaking scenery off the beaten track, Li says.
The boundless primitive forest in the Russian city of Novosibirsk, the large-scale wild Przewalski's horse free-ranging facility at Mongolia's Khustai National Park, approximately 100 km southwest from Ulan Bator, and dinosaur fossils at Bayankhongor are among highlights along the way.
Trips to countries bordering southern China, such as those near the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Yunnan province, have relatively mature itineraries.
"Self-driving tours to Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar from Yunnan province are common," says Zhu Huashan.
Normally, it takes approximately seven days for a tourist to get an in-depth experience of those countries, Zhu explains.
"Half of the fun of self-driving trips is the driving experience itself," Zhu says.
He says getting a first-hand look at local folk customs and the magnificent Mongolian grasslands is an amazing experience.
Li Yongwei says the self-drive tour market has a huge potential with an increasing number of Chinese people being able to afford a car.
Europe is a good testament to the Chinese interest in self-drive holidays.
ADVERTISING3 3 "Many of our guests have chosen to drive themselves from Belgium to the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Germany over the years," says Qiu Zhenzhen, financial supervisor of the Euro-China Linkup Sprl, a company specializing in arranging self-drive tours in Europe.
"Self-driving enables them to savor many small, beautiful cities along the way, as well as local customs and picturesque mountain and lake sceneries."
Qiu says all those in-depth experiences will be missed if one chooses to travel by air.
She says self-driving is also a very leisurely way to travel.
"I can go 200-300 km a day and make stops anywhere I fancy," she says.
"I can take all my things in my car and don't need a taxi service, which is considerably expensive in Europe," she says.
Precise GPS service and a well-developed highway system in Europe also encourage people to choose self-drive holidays.
Qiu says the GPS assistance means she doesn't need to worry about getting lost and there is no customs red tape to go through when passing highway stops.
