More young Chinese, including Yang Li, now keep signature travel journals, with text and pictures, tape and collages. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The junior at Beijing Sport University uses the same method to take notes in class. She's more motivated to learn when she sees beautiful drawings and cute stickers.

Chen, who shares photos of her journal on social media, says her parents are supportive because they know that she uses the journals to organize her life and her studies.

Zhao Shanshan, 20, says: "The journal has become an inseparable part of my life. I take time off to record my daily life. The palest of ink is better than the best memory."

The junior at a university in Dalian, in Northeast China's Liaoning province, adds that keeping a journal has also improved her ability to study because she uses the journal to make a reading plan and follow it.

Zhao, who has used the internet to make friends with others who keep journals, says they get together in coffeehouses from time to time to exchange notes and pretty tape.

When she started keeping a journal, she spent about 3,000 yuan ($436) on tape. Each roll cost about 10-50 yuan.

"You can't help buying tape because you are anxious to use it to make your journal fancy. But then I found that I did not need so much tape because the most important thing is the content," she says.