With the popularity of road travel, Chinese backpackers have shifted the place of graffiti activities from cities to non-urban spaces such as highways. Although backpackers’ graffiti is influenced by both traditional travel culture and modern graffiti art, it is different from graffiti in urban areas and scenic spots. Backpackers’ graffiti combines “roaming” and “graffiti” and thus can be regarded as a special spatial practice. The spatio-temporal characteristics of backpackers’ graffiti provide a vivid context for analyzing the importance of road and nodes in tourism geography, for understanding how tourists participate in the place making of destinations, and for exploring how a community can be created during a mobile process. This paper takes backpackers’ travel in Sichuan-Tibet highway as a case, exploring the significance of graffiti as a spatial practice by combining mobile ethnography with multi-sited ethnography. We interviewed 20 backpackers including hikers, riders, hitchhikers and 2 hostel owners. Also, graffiti on walls of hostels and restaurants, on the roadside railings, monuments and scenic spots was collected. This study finds that graffiti practice makes the Sichuan-Tibet highway and nodes along the way such as hostels become the witness of backpackers' journeys and even their lives. The Sichuan-Tibet highway originally as the instrumental and political space is rewritten into a private and emotional space. Because Tibet is thought to be holy by Han travelers, their travel to Tibet via this highway is regarded as pilgrimage to some extent. The difficulties during the journey due to the dangerous road conditions is constantly compared to difficulties in life by travelers. Lots of graffiti record travelers’ experiences and feelings during the journey. Moreover, graffiti practice contributes to the formation of a post-modern “neo-tribe”, as Michel Maffesoli suggested. Backpackers interact with each other via graffiti although they are not going through these spaces at the same time. Graffiti can be perceived as a language of the backpacking group and they “talked” to each other through making comments’ on others’ texts. As a protocol, backpackers avoid overlapping others’ text. It becomes a game of backpackers to compete for the space left over and they develop different strategies. Backpackers share their feelings, exchange jokes, and encourage each other through graffiti. As a result, backpackers’ graffiti reshapes the spatial meaning of Sichuan-Tibet highway and its nodes, and this activity also plays a crucial role in the formation of the unique travel culture of this highway.