A bird nestling in a tree somewhere in Indonesia. FENG MENG-CHIEH/FOR CHINA DAILY

The road within

Apart from thoughts on the outside world, the travel matters a lot for the "sailors" themselves because it is closely related with their inner world.

Having been a journalist and editor for Beijing News Book Review for nearly four years, Bai Lin quit the job in 2017 and started traveling in the Balkans in 2018 as a freelancer.

She is now working on the last part of her book about her exploration in the region over the last three years, which requires her to pay another visit to the ancient monasteries in Serbia. However, due to the pandemic, she has had to suspend the plan.

Bai says that her interest in the former Yugoslavia originated from her own curiosity at boundaries people keep in daily life.

"I travel and write to solve my own problems, and to deal with my relationship with the world," she says.

In modern society, people talk about "sense of distance" or "don't cross the line" in various relationships. Despite its necessity, the boundaries people keep between each other have already enlarged into gaps, she says.