BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Li Futao's first real taste of county travel came right after high school, when he set off for the picturesque Yangshuo County of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The trip changed the way he traveled.

With just 900 yuan (about 125 U.S. dollars) to last him five days, he found something money could not buy: a slower, warmer rhythm of life. Family-run stalls lined the streets, where shopkeepers chatted with regulars or guided wandering travelers. At his homestay, the hosts didn't just check him in, they shared their home, offering free rides and lending their own bikes.

Since that trip, Li has visited 28 counties across China, drawn to the relaxed pace and richer connections. As the five-day May Day holiday kicks off on May 1, more Chinese travelers like Li are waving the urban sprawl goodbye, skipping the big cities, and ditching overcrowded metropoles for hidden-gem small towns.

Fresh data from Chinese travel services platform Qunar shows that hotel bookings have already expanded to 1,229 counties across China, reflecting a 20 percent year-on-year increase in demand.

Ms. Wang, a Beijing resident, had planned to visit Tonglu County in Zhejiang Province, east China, during the May Day holiday, but with train tickets so hard to come by, she opted for a trip to Cangzhou City and the surrounding counties in north China's Hebei Province instead, where high-speed trains run roughly every 10 minutes from Beijing and take less than an hour.

"What surprised me is that even during the holiday period, hotel prices in Cangzhou remained quite reasonable," said Wang, "For a big family like ours, with six people traveling together, it was a very practical and budget-friendly choice."

Her story is just one example of a growing preference for county trips. As one viral phrase puts it, "It's not that big cities are out of reach, it's just that small counties offer more bang for your buck," and the rising interest in county travel is not limited to one type of traveler.

According to data from H World Group, one of China's largest hotel operators, younger travelers, particularly those aged 20 to 40, remain the main force behind this year's May Day getaways, accounting for 56 percent of overall hotel bookings.

Meanwhile, travelers aged 55 and above, representing 15 percent of bookings, are also gradually unlocking long-awaited travel opportunities.

This trend is reflected in the broader statistics as well. The 2024 Report on Tourism Competitiveness of Chinese Counties shows that both total tourism revenue and the number of tourist visits in China's top 100 tourist counties recorded year-on-year growth of over 30 percent. On average, tourism revenue accounted for over 68 percent of the counties' GDP, up seven percentage points from the previous year.

Beyond affordability and authenticity, the growing appeal of county travel is also driven by factors like online exposure.

Xixian County in north China's Shanxi Province exploded in popularity after its scenery featured in the phenomenal video game "Black Myth: Wukong," drawing nearly 90,000 visitors, equal to its population, in just six days during the 2024 National Day holiday.

In Ailao Mountains nature reserve in southwest China, a blogger's video about collecting natural pigments sparked a surge in online searches, and the scenic area welcomed over 50,000 visitors during last year's National Day holiday, a 15 percent increase from the year before.

The National County Tourism Development Research Report 2024 shows that in 2023, the average tourism revenue of 1,866 county-level regions in China reached over 4.29 billion yuan, with an average of more than five million tourist visits, representing year-on-year growth of 41.19 percent and 35.18 percent, respectively.

The surging numbers owe much to better infrastructure and supportive national policies.

Over the past two decades, national tourism strategies have increasingly emphasized the development of counties and small-town destinations. Initiatives have encouraged the integration of tourism with broader goals such as ecological conservation, poverty alleviation, and rural revitalization, creating fertile ground for sustained growth in county tourism. ■