[Photo by Hu Bin/For China Daily]

"It's also a bond of friendship, a gallery of nature and a display of cultures."

The 54-day media tour took him through more than 30 cities and a dozen UNESCO World Heritage sites in eight countries.

The book reveals images of, and stories from, the Guri Amir mausoleum in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, balloon rides in Turkey's Cappadocia and Mediterranean ferry journeys.

Hu squeezed out time to write notes of every day's travels after reporting. They became the photo book's narration.

"The daily travelogues supplement the photos and give readers first-person experiences, as if they're traveling with Hu along the road," China Photographic Press House editor Li Lili says.

An interesting encounter in the book is the visit to "Shaanxi village" in Kazakhstan, near the borders of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Dungan branch of China's Hui ethnic group emigrated during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and still lives largely as it did a century ago.