BORN in 1958, well-known Shanghai author Chen Danyan began writing for magazines when she was a teenager. At first she focused on subjects such as youth and conflicts in society. In 1993 she published “Nine Lives,” an autobiographic novel of a girl’s childhood experiences during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), which was later translated into German and nominated in 1996 for the German Youth Literature Prize.

Starting in the late 1990s, Chen shifted her focus to the history of Shanghai as an old commercial port and the spirit of citizens who have called Shanghai their home. In a nostalgic manner, she has written six nonfiction books dealing with haunting stories of Shanghai, reflecting changes of the original city landscape as a result of the highly paced economic development and modernization in the past few decades.

At the same time, she started to travel widely around the world, from Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Central America to the Svalbard islands of Norway, the northernmost populated place in the world. In different literary forms, she writes about the things she sees along the way, relating them to the people and events she once read about in books, sharing her emotions and offering travel tips on how to best dine in, stay at and visit the sites.

Her latest book, “My Travel Philosophy” was launched last month by the Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House in Shanghai. A picture show of Chen that features palm prints of the queens of Rajasthan was held in the Shanghai Library’s first-floor lobby. The county in western India, long known as a “Land of Kingdoms,” was the latest stop of Chen’s spiritual journey to the west, following the trail of Buddhist Monk Xuan Zang of the early Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

During a group interview at the library, Chen said: “Travel has broadened my horizons in a way that nothing else could. The more I have seen around the world, the better I learn to appreciate my own home city from different perspectives. Through comparison, I am curious to know more of Shanghai and how to make it better.”

By the end of next year, a series of Chen’s travel books will be published as an anthology, including previous bestsellers “Two Diaries in Russia” and “West Wind Drift.”

Pan Yaoming, chairman of the Chinese Travel Literature Research Institute in Hong Kong, said, “Reading Chen Danyan’s travel books is like going into a perfectly lighted café, where you can sit comfortably on a soft sofa, enjoy a cup of hot coffee and lose yourself in a pleasant reverie, which propels you to want to go traveling.” 

China now has the largest number of outbound tourists in the world. Chinese tourists are seen as “walking wallets” by foreigners because they have become the world’s biggest spenders, often flooding stores to buy luxury goods.

Chen said: “It is really sad to see my compatriots see nothing and love nothing when they are abroad these days. I hope my travel logs may serve as a reminder of why we love to travel.”

Chen answered a few questions from Shanghai Daily:

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

“Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel” by Serbian writer Milorad Pavic, published in 1984. I am myself very much impressed by the open architecture of the book.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

In the old city of Dublin, when I was reading James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” I had always wanted to finish reading this massive work ever since it was translated into Chinese. After starting and quitting it several times, I finally had an opportunity. Those were the last few days during my residence in Ireland, my work was over and interviews done. So I had nothing to do but to read books. During the process of reading, I visited the James Joyce Center, dined at a restaurant where Bloom dined and drank, at the pub where Bloom stopped for a glass of burgundy and a piece of gorgonzola cheese sandwich. It was such a perfect reading environment that I felt greatly involved and comfortably off.

What does your personal book collection look like? Do you organize your books in any particular way?

I used to have a large collection of old and used books at home. When I found that I could no longer handle them as new ones kept coming in, I decided to donate them to schools and community libraries. When I want to read again some of the books, I can go to the library and borrow them home. There are many old people who love reading in the community where I grew up. It makes me feel good when I see them reading the books I have donated. Giving back is beneficial — and not just for the recipients.

Do you have a favorite childhood literary character or hero?

I have had many a favorite literary character or hero. The Count of Monte Cristo had long been my dream lover during my teenage years. The first book I read, if I remembered well, was the collection of “Aesop’s Fables.” Of all the fables, “The Golden Axe” was one of the most impressive because I mistook “Axe” for “Ass” as I read along. What a funny surprise after I went to school when I finally got to realize the big mistake I had made!

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know?

I want to meet Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Literature Prize for her work as “master of contemporary short story.”

I love those “long” short stories of hers very much. Munro’s work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time. That’s very unique and I want to ask her how she’s made it.

What’s the highlight of the year? What book are you most eagerly anticipating in 2014?

I have just finished making a documentary of “The Bund.” I had a good time while working with the production team, and some of us have become very good friends. It was lucky to work with those honest, hard-working people and I wish the documentary a great success.

This year the Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House launched a series of my travel books. It is planned to be a 12-book series, expected to be finished by the end of next year. I have spent more than 20 years on this set of travel books and I expect it to draw a good conclusion to my global travel experience in the past 24 years.