In the past couple of years, a new concept of tourism has emerged in China, qiongyou, or traveling poor, which means that traveling throughout this planet can actually be conducted with much lower costs. Backpackers, by maximizing the usage of every cent, can walk thousands of miles and grasp the broader essence of traveling.

In China, a young generation, enthusiastic about traveling, is growing increasingly passionate. There are all kinds of tourist websites on which travelers share road maps, walkthroughs, pictures and all kinds of interesting tips.

Costs, of course, are a topic that everybody cares about. This is also why travel agencies have started to provide services that they only book flight tickets and hotels for travelers as a package, giving the young generation the freedom of planning their own schedule while enjoying lower costs with the help of the agencies.

This signals a trend. Traveling abroad among young Chinese will be increasingly popular. For instance, college students can plan together a journey to a remote island when the costs are no longer unaffordable.

However, this concept of qiongyou now risks being abused by some young people who think it is purely about saving money.

I laughed aloud recently when having lunch with a friend who will go to Thailand with her friends during the upcoming National Day holidays. She complained throughout the meal how the journey now appears increasingly intolerable when everybody only cares about saving money and ignoring where money should truly be spent.

Frankly speaking, those who go after the concept of traveling poor are not really poor, otherwise they wouldn't go traveling at all. But many misunderstand what traveling is truly about.

My friend protested when her friends, who dominated their journey planning, decided to book an early morning plane from an island to a major Thai city.

They will need to first get up very early, walk all the way to a port, take a boat, go to the airport, spend most of the day on plane, and then take a shuttle bus before finally arriving at the hotel of the destination city. The whole day will be wasted if they take this flight, through which they will save 400 yuan ($65) each.

But on the other hand, her friends did not stint on cash when it came to booking hotels. They booked a five-star hotel to enjoy an incredible evening, which costs more than 1,000 yuan per night.

The expression on my friend's face was funny when she poured all these details to me: "Can you imagine? They'd rather waste a whole day to book an unbelievable flight, but are willing to pay for accommodation at a luxury hotel."

The only explanation is that, by living luxuriously they can share it on social networking sites. People can see what they eat and where they stay, but who will see how they saved pennies by wasting all that time on a cheap flight?

What is traveling is about? Everyone has his or her own answer. Some of my friends even see "traveling to every inch of Earth" as a lifetime dream and the driving force of working. They try to maximize the money usage so they can go to as many places as possible. But they are not stingy when the money should be spent in the right place.

Traveling is a life treasure - this is already a consensus among young Chinese. But it's a pity that many of them only agree when their trips can be something they can take out to show off. If no one knew they went traveling, I doubt they would even spend one penny on this thing at all.

Daisy Wang, a journalist based in Beijing