Beijing was the most popular tourist destination for young Chinese in 2006, according to a recent China Youth Daily poll.

And Jiuzhaigou Ravine in Southwest China's Sichuan Province was the most popular tourist attraction in China.

About 1.4 million youths voted between May and November through the Internet and short messages to choose the two from among 463 cities and 1,187 tourist attractions.

"Many of the sites are new, not-so-famous tourist destinations, reflecting the youth's preference for undeveloped places," the newspaper's Party secretary Wang Hongyou said yesterday.

Without the youth's preference for new places, some tourist attractions might not have become famous at all,

For example, Daocheng/Yading in Sichuan, called the last Shangri-La by many, was not well known till a few years ago. But the rush of young travelers there made it famous. It was one of the 30 tourist attractions in the recent poll, he said.

But the top 10 destinations are still fully developed places: Beijing, Kunming in Yunnan Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, Xiamen in Fujian Province, Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, Dalian in Liaoning Province, and Lijiang in Yunnan.

The top 10 tourist attractions are: Jiuzhaigou Ravine, the Yellow Mountain, Yalong Bay, Lijiang, the West Lake, Shangri-La, Emei Mountain, Zhangjiajie, Guilin's scenery, and the Huangguoshu Fall.

Wu Zhenwei, a reader in Xi'an, said he was looking forward to the poll results because in future, he would have more destinations and attractions to choose from.

He said young people like him valued their peers' comments while choosing a destination for their vacations.

Traveling is fast becoming part of today's lifestyle and a way of learning for the youth. A survey in East China's Zhejiang Province showed that 90 per cent of the youth spent money to go tours in 2005.

At least 13.1 percent of the young travelers spent between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan (120 and 360 U.S. dollars), with more than 12 percent spending over 3,000 yuan (360 U.S. dollars).

Editor: Donald