These bus trips mirror a broader movement among the youth. Social media platforms like Bilibili, Red-Note, and Douyin have popularized "bus travel diaries", with influencers documenting their cross-province routes.

Thirty-one-year-old Zhou Rongling's bus trip last year from Shanghai to Xiamen, Fujian province, was inspired by such posts.

When she quit her job at a game company in Shanghai in July, she didn't book a flight to her new workplace in Xiamen to reunite with her husband who works in the city. Instead, she embarked on a six-day, 1,000-kilometer trip through nine cities, transiting through 36 public bus stations.