Zhao Yi is among an emerging group of Chinese who are renting cars to explore various destinations. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Li Yujun hopped a plane to Yunnan's provincial capital, Kunming, and then rented a car to explore Dali and Lijiang, and Guizhou province's Xingyi in early June.

The 32-year-old Beijinger plans to tour the Tibet autonomous region in a rented car this month.

"Driving allows me to go where I want without having to haul luggage," he says.

"I don't have time to drive from my home, so renting works out."

He can rest assured the car has been cared for. And the fact it isn't his reminds him to be careful.

Li's recent trip took him through cities, along dirt roads that coiled up mountainsides and across misty flatlands.

"The weather was fickle," he recalls.

"Driving enabled me to experience diverse climates."

Stones sometimes tumbled onto the roads during his drive from Lijiang to Lugu Lake. He could hear explosions－blasting to clear the way for new roads.

He stopped to spend four hours hiking three mountains.

"It was a shaky climb," he recalls.

"But everything was worth it when the lake view appeared."