Thirty-six visually impaired visitors head to the Hulun Buir grassland in north China's Inner Mongolia. Li Manshuo is one of the volunteers accompanying them. Her "job" is to help three group members "experience" the sights as best they can. 

Li is studying for a master's degree in tourism management and she's using her midterm break to undertake the trip.

"Visually-impaired travelers get the experience mainly through smelling or listening, or touching with their hands," Li says. "Also, with our descriptions, they can create a picture of the scene in their minds."

Guiding instead of taking over

Mei Zhiyu is the director of Zhisu Commonweal Organization, a Suzhou-based non-profit organization that, through its own travel agency, has given more than 1,000 intrepid blind and low-vision travelers the chance to explore places all over China.

Before a tour sets out, the volunteers, each of whom is normally assigned to two or three travelers, receive safety instructions and basic training. Throughout the trip, their performance is assessed by Mei on a daily basis.

"The most important thing is not to think of them as incapacitated people," he says. "Actually, most visually impaired people have a greater capacity to look after themselves than we think, and we try to offer them the same experiences as sighted travelers."

A more inclusive society

China has a visually impaired population of over 17 million. In a survey of 2,000 people with little or no vision, Zhisu found that 60 percent expressed a strong desire to travel.

"In the beginning, we found some challenges, from hotel booking to getting tickets for the visually impaired… due to concerns about their safety," Mei explains. "Now more places embrace persons with disability, and therefore they are able to integrate better into society."

Mei likens his role to work like a bridge, connecting the visually impaired to the outside world. "Even though they can't see," he says, "they can experience the world in other ways."

To discover how people with a visual impairment can experience the joy of travel, please tune in to Rediscovering China on Sunday.