I never watch TV, but I’ve been hooked on this nightly miniseries on the Chinese Travel Network lately.

It’s about a Chinese modern-day Romeo who decided to hitchhike from Beijing to Berlin to be with his girlfriend. He and his chain smoking friend set off from Beijing with a video camera, backpacks, and head west.

Most of the time they are picked up by truck drivers, with the occasional good samaritan in a luxury sedan giving them a lift. They travel all through China, eventually crossing the border in Xinjiang to Kyrgyzstan.

Shortly after, the chain smoking guy needs to go back to Beijing for some reason and Romeo is on his own. The road eventually leads through all the ‘stans to the middle east, where he passes through war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq. The last episode he was in Bulgaria, where he inadvertently ends up staying at a trucker’s brothel.

Traveler or backpacker shows are a dime a dozen in the west, but what’s really interesting about this show is seeing it from a Chinese perspective, where budget travel is just starting to catch on.