Qi Juanjuan hikes in areas off the beaten track in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A Chinese traveler's photos from 84 countries he visited over a decade are on display in Beijing.

The first memory of travel for Qi Juanjuan was seeing mural paintings at the Bingling Grotto Temple along with his father as a child. The well-known tourist site in Yongjing county, Northwest China's Gansu province, is where Qi was born and raised. While being impressed by the 1,600-year-old Buddhist art, Qi also saw many foreign tourists then.

"I wondered why those people traveled thousands of miles to my hometown, and my father told me that it's because it's exciting to explore a different culture as well as enjoy the beautiful scenery along the road," recalls Qi, adding that his father also showed him the location of China on a world map. "The love of traveling was like a seed planted in my heart."