The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province saw the fastest growth in individual Chinese going abroad in China last year, followed by Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province in E China and Changchun, Jilin province in the Northeast, according to a recent report from China's online travel giant Tuniu.

The most popular destination for these free-spirited people from Harbin was South Korea, followed by Thailand, which accounted for 33 percent and 19 percent of its total individual outbound travelers, respectively. One reason given for going to Korea was the love of shopping in the Myeongdong district of the capital, Seoul, and the Lotte duty free shops. The most popular food choices for these adventurers were Japanese, Taiwanese, and Thai.

Wang Lin, of Tuniu’s Harbin branch, said that many of the short-distance trips outside China are actually cheaper than some long-distance travel routes inside China, for example as the one from Harbin to Hainan or to Yunnan, mainly because of some loosening of tourist visa policies and low-cost charter flights to neighboring Asian countries.

As an example, Wang added, “A 10-day tour to Yunnan costs more than 3,000 yuan ($462) while it only costs about 2,000 yuan to go to South Korea.”