"By bus, you see the gradual shift from bustling cities to remote villages and snowcapped mountains," he says.

Despite its appeal, bus travel isn't without its hurdles. Ye remembers a mishap in Xuancheng, Anhui province, where the infrequent schedule of a rural bus forced him to rely on a taxi driver's help. To mitigate such moments, he carried spare change for cash-only buses, researched regional schedules, and packed essentials like altitude sickness medication for high-elevation routes.

"You learn to adapt, like swapping summer clothes for layers when crossing into places like Xizang," Ye says.

While affordability matters, Ye emphasizes cultural curiosity for future bus trips. He plans to visit historical sites in Qingdao, Shandong, for its German-style architecture, and Shenyang for the 9.18 Historical Museum, which is dedicated to the rail incident Japan used as a pretext to invade China in 1931.