HU Lining started her life as a backpacker two years ago. With the principle of "exerting less money, achieving greater happiness," the 62-year-old woman is always on the move, traveling around with her meticulous budget and passion to help others.

Hu from Hangzhou is a retired Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor. Unlike her peers who mostly prefer package tours, Hu is particularly keen on DIY travel.

She recently returned from a 40-day tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which only cost her about 5,000 yuan (US$762).

"DIY travel is cheap and economical, but also tiring as I need to plan the accommodation, transportation and everything," says Hu. "Though sometimes risky, it has an exciting element of suspense."

"To save money was not the first reason that I chose DIY travel, yet I want to economize wherever possible."

Hu has loved travel since youth, and toured throughout the country with family or friends before she retired.

But her addiction to travel as a backpacker didn't begin until 2009, when she went on a 20-day tour of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Nepal with some friends.

When their trip was over, her friends were ready to go home, but Hu was dissatisfied. She suggested they keep traveling but her friends all refused.

So she resolved to continue her own tour, and stayed in Nepal for a couple more days before spending 15 days in Thailand.

"The hectic tour very much soothed and relaxed me. It made me feel young again, as if I was 31 not 62," jokes Hu.

Since then she travels twice a year, for one to two months each time.

While many old people cannot even type Chinese characters on a computer, this trendy retiree is sophisticated enough to search for cheap airplane tickets online, to download and upload itinerary strategy, and she is a fan of "Lonely Planet," the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world.

The cheapness of her recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos derives from the hard work she did before setting out.

Hu began the trip by train to Nanning, in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where she got her visa to Vietnam processed.

Before the departure, she noticed the price of hotels in Nanning were averagely high. So through unremitting online research, she found individual student dorm rooms with a warm bath and Internet access available for 30 yuan (US$4.57) per night.

When Hu arrived in Southeast Asia, she consulted "Lonely Planet" for cheap inns, or shared rooms with other female backpackers.

She also shared transport at her destinations.

"For example, when I got off the train at Vietnam, I saw a foreign boy inquiring about a taxi, so I struck up conversation with him and asked 'can we split the check to take the taxi?' He said 'Yes'," Hu recalls.

"The driver stated a price of US$10, but according to 'Lonely Planet' I knew we could cut the price to half. So I bargained the price to US$5. And we later picked up a couple of travelers from Europe, so eventually the ride cost each person US$1.25. And the four of us ended up staying in the same cheap inn."

Hu, as an educated person, speaks functional English. But she doesn't think that means people speaking little English cannot go backpacking.

"I know a young couple who speaks very few English words like 'yes' and 'no.' But they bargained by writing prices on paper, they asked the way by showing the address to local people and they completed a tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos."

"Even if some locals do not speak English, visitors can ask for help from young local people who probably do," she adds.

She accumulated lots of photos and unforgettable memories on her long trip, but she says DIY travel is sometimes risky. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, her bag, which contained her passport, cellphone, laptop, credit card and purse, was stolen when she was occupied taking photos.

"Tension and regret nearly caused my heart condition to recur," recalls Hu.

However, subsequent events put her at ease. A Chinese embassy employee gave her a map of Phnom Penh in the Chinese language, an overseas Chinese who runs an Internet café offered her free telephone calls and Internet access, and a local waiter in her inn tried to find the thief and offered Hu free food.

"Receiving help in difficult times is like receiving a cardiotonic." Despite the loss, Hu felt the warmness.

Doctor's charity

Hu delivers her warmness to others as well during her travels home and abroad.

Since 2009, she has volunteered to see patients every summer in a small hospital in Fuyuan County, Heilongjiang Province in China's northeast, where she was a zhiqing more than 40 years ago. (Zhiqing refers to urban youth who were sent to mountain or farming areas to learn farming skills during the late 1960s and early 1970s under China's Down to the Countryside Movement.)

"I treat farmers and fishermen there. I know who they are once they tell me their parents' name," says Hu.

"I give free treatment and no one covers my transportation fee or other fares. Patients ask me 'for what?' and I tell them 'for happiness'!" she adds.

This summer, she is going to the county to promote the concept of "treat wintertime disease in summer." "Wintertime diseases, like arthritis and tracheitis, are supposed to be treated in summer according to TCM," she explains.

Hu spreads her passion to foreign lands as well.

Last winter when traveling in Nepal, Hu was aware of volunteer recruitment by Missionaries of Charity Nirmal Hriday in Calcutta, India, a hospice affiliated to Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa. Hu immediately contacted it and became a volunteer there.

The hospice takes in dying homeless and abandoned patients, and Hu's job was to take care of them, with her main tasks including washing, feeding patients and tuina, or massage, which is her specialty.

For an entire month, the former doctor worked for no pay until her visa had nearly expired. "The experience purifies my soul," says Hu. "It is pleasant to work with warm-hearted volunteers from everywhere in the world, and what I experienced from being a volunteer is no less important than what I earned from travel."

Tips to treat sudden sickness during travel

As a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor for more than 30 years, Hu provides some simple methods to treat illness during travel.

Headache

To soothe a headache caused by the cold, the patient should massage the bridge of their brow and press the he gu point (found between the bones of the thumb and first finger).

To alleviate a headache caused by anger, the patient needs to press the tai yang point (in the depression of the temples at the sides of the eyes), and feng chi point (the crater on the hairline of the back of the neck).

Diarrhea

A bland diet or fasting is preferred. Take more water and more rest. Massage the inner side of the calf and where it aches is helpful too.

Cold

Taking a ginger essence decoction and soaking the body or feet in hot water are helpful. But a hot bath is forbidden if the patient suffers altitude sickness.

Tiredness

Abdominal breathing alleviates tiredness. The basic steps of the breathing are: Lie on your back and relax the body, inhale through your nose and expand your abdomen. Focusing on expanding the lower abdomen, exhale through your mouth and gently pull the abdomen in, let the chest stay relatively still, and repeat.