Today such a rail journey would take as little as nine hours, and a flight between the two cities about three and a half hours.

"Guizhou is a mountainous province, and back then train journeys to other provinces were incredibly long and expensive. It's hard to believe that now."

Another thing that has greatly changed over the years is what Chinese people know about tourism, he says.

"Even if people had spare cash in the 1980s, few had any idea about how you went about touring around. For most people it's now just a part of everyday life."

Like Li, Chen Shenglin, 64, of Shanghai, attributes his lifetime love for tourism to his early travels. Chen, who retired from a State-owned corporation as a senior engineer two years ago, says he has traveled with his wife to more than 20 countries.