淘宝

More global travelers are going beyond China’s megacities to experience farming, village life and local traditions firsthand_我的网站

A |     　　威海8月21日电 题：科技破局金融赋能 山东威海做强蓝色产业　　作者 周艺伟　　威海位于山东半岛东端，三面濒临黄海，北与辽东半岛相对，东与朝鲜半岛隔海相望，海岸线长968千米，约占全国的十八分之一。    

    US tourists experience the farming culture of harvesting crops at an agritourism farm in Zhangjiajie, Central China's Hunan Province. Photo: VCG
Editor's Note:
In early 2026, the phrase "Very Chinese Time" went viral on global social media platforms. Content centered around China's everyday life has been widely viewed and discussed, bringing the Chinese experience into the international public sphere in an extremely down-to-earth way. However, this phenomenon goes beyond mere online popularity - it is unfolding amid the ongoing reshaping of the global order and the accumulation of anxiety in Western societies. A deeper transformation is emerging, as China's lifestyle, pop culture and technological practices are increasingly recognized, discussed and used as references around the world.
This series uses "Very Chinese Time" as an observation lens to go beyond a single internet trend and systematically showcase how the Chinese experience is entering global everyday life. This is the sixth installment of the series.
"This is way harder than any weights I lifted in the gym. I never felt so much pain and struggle as when I was carrying those watermelons," Kevin Loi-Heng could not help thinking as he learned to carry two baskets of watermelons on a shoulder pole, just as local farmers do.
The 29-year-old traveler from London had seen China's modern megacities on previous business trips. But two weeks spent working on farms in the countryside of Fenghua, Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, gave him a chance to see a very different side of the country.
China's inbound tourism boom has continued into 2026. Inbound tourism maintained strong growth, while data from the National Immigration Administration showed that 22.91 million foreigners entered China in the first half of the year, up 20.4 percent year-on-year, according to a report about 2026 tourism market insights for the first half of the year released by the China Tourism Association.
As "China Travel" continues to trend across social media, a trip to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or Shenzhen is no longer the only way foreign visitors explore the country. Increasingly, they are heading into villages, farms and fields.
Videos posted by foreign travelers show visitors picking fruit, harvesting rice, feeding livestock, learning traditional farming techniques and simply spending time with local villagers.
Through these immersive rural experiences, they are discovering a different China, one that is earthy, vibrant and deeply human, a tourism expert told the Global Times.
See a different side
Kevin's own company focuses on research into sustainable agriculture and soil health, so working with the land was not entirely unfamiliar territory. Yet he found that China's countryside taught him a great deal.
"One question I had before coming to China to do farm work was: With 1.4 billion people, how does China feed all of its people?" Kevin told the Global Times. "I had this picture in my head that China was very large, and that remote rural communities would have different ways of living and different land practices. I wasn't sure if they would accept a foreigner like me."
The fact is, this land welcomed everything.
To get to the mountain fields and start working, Kevin and his fellow participants would get up as early as 4 am and begin working by 6 am. They picked local white peaches, harvested watermelons and dug up peanuts.
Beyond picking crops, Kevin helped prepare the land and soil, plant seasonal crops such as chilies, prune overgrown trees and clean up farmland. He also fed pigs, chickens, ducks and geese, checked agricultural equipment at the local rural market and spoke with farmers and agricultural workers about the challenges they face in their daily lives.
"One of the first tools I used was a backpack sprayer. It was actually very practical," he recalled.
Kevin said the experience broadened his understanding of China. "I saw that the working people are very humble, but also very hardworking."
Over the past year, China's countryside has emerged as a new growth area for inbound tourism.
According to data released by Trip.com, a large online travel agency, on February 11, its affiliated rural resort farms saw inbound tourism bookings increase by more than 50 percent year-on-year in 2025, while the number of room nights booked by international visitors rose by more than 75 percent. "Visiting the Chinese countryside" is becoming a new option for international travelers who once focused overwhelmingly on major cities. Singapore, the US, Australia, Germany and Malaysia were among the major source markets. 
Many overseas vloggers are turning their lenses toward China's countryside, hoping to find a different perspective from which to observe the country.
In March, US content creators Ludwig and Michael were cycling through a village in Central China's Hunan Province, when they encountered villagers preparing for a traditional funeral. Mistaking the gathering for a busy restaurant and the people dressed in white mourning clothes for cooks, they initially misunderstood what was happening. But rather than being offended, a local villager surnamed Li invited the two travelers into his home for a meal. The three chatted about their cycling adventures along the way and eventually sang a song together before parting ways.
After Ludwig uploaded the footage to YouTube, the video received more than 2 million views, offering overseas audiences an unexpected glimpse into culture in a Chinese village.
    Kevin Loi-Heng, a 29-year-old traveler from London, works on a farm in Qufu, East China's Shandong Province, on April 18, 2026. Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Loi-Heng
The appeal of countryside
As overseas audiences increasingly encounter images of China's highly modernized cities across various online platforms, some travelers are showing greater interest in experiences that offer a sense of authenticity, simplicity and contrast, Zhang Lingyun, a professor and the executive editor-in-chief of Tourism Tribune journal, told the Global Times.
After Kevin showed the video on social media, a lot of his friends found it quite unexpected. "They found it interesting and funny. One of my friends remarked, 'You're always doing side quests,' and said he wished he could live an adventurous life like me," Kevin recalled.
The criteria by which travelers evaluate an experience have changed, Zhang emphasized.
Zhao Mai, an English-speaking tour guide who works extensively with international visitors, has observed this shift firsthand.
Zhao told the Global Times that many young foreign travelers are increasingly interested in participating in everyday activities and interacting directly with local people rather than moving from one landmark to another.
There is another attraction: value for money. China's rural tourism destinations can offer international visitors a combination of affordability, quality and variety that is difficult to match, Zhao said. The diversity of China's countryside is also a major advantage.
In 2025, among the hundreds of "best tourism villages" selected by UN Tourism, China alone accounted for 19, spanning a vast geographical range from the eastern coastal regions to the western plateaus, and from the water towns of Jiangnan to the mountain villages of the southwest, according to the CCTV News.
But Zhao believed the most important factor is still the rise of experiential tourism itself.
"Experiential tourism has become one of the key forces driving the global tourism industry," he said. "And that is where China's countryside has a natural advantage. Rural areas in China offer natural scenery, local traditions, community life and opportunities for deeper participation."
Kevin said working in the village in Zhejiang gave him a new perspective on self-sufficiency and sustainable living.
The experience was so meaningful that he returned to China for a second trip, this time spending another two weeks doing agricultural work in Qufu, East China's Shandong Province.
A teacher living in the local Confucius Institute community spoke to him about the "qi" of the soil, an idea that, Kevin noted, is largely unfamiliar in the Western context.
"In the West, I was accustomed to explanations and theories in which soil is seen simply as a resource with physical and chemical properties that can be exploited," he said.
The trip helped him understand soil in a broader way, not merely as an agricultural resource, but as something essential to community life and health and as a connector between humans and the environment, or biosphere.
"I wish I could speak Chinese and understand local people's thoughts better, so I could learn more about Chinese rural agricultural life and local history," he said. 
In May 2026, a village in Guilin, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, held its annual Terraced Fields Plowing Festival. Across the layers of terraced fields, local residents demonstrated traditional farming practices, attracting visitors from both China and abroad, the news outlet chinanews.com reported.
He Chengxi, a deputy manager of the media department of Guilin Longji Tourism Co., Ltd., told the Global Times that foreign visitors are particularly drawn to this immersive experience as they are intrigued by this traditional method of farming, and found Chinese farming culture novel and meaningful. 
And social media shows that the phenomenon goes beyond short-term tourism. For example, some foreigners who have married Chinese partners have shared their enjoyment of rural life online.
    Foreign visitors taste local drinks during the Terraced Fields Plowing Festival held in Guilin, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Photo: Courtesy of He Chengxi
From tourism traffic to lasting connections
Zhao believes the growing interest in rural tourism should be viewed against the broader backdrop of China's efforts to revitalize the countryside and integrate agriculture, culture and tourism.
China unveiled its "No. 1 central document" for 2026 on February 3, outlining plans to advance agricultural and rural modernization and to promote all-around rural revitalization, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
According to estimates from the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China received 793 million rural tourism visits in the first quarter of 2026, up 12.2 percent year-on-year. Rural tourism revenue reached 457 billion yuan ($63.5 billion), up 10.9 percent, Xinhua reported.
The direct economic impact of foreign visitors to rural areas, however, is harder to measure. Zhang said it seems that that rural inbound tourism remains a relatively small trend amplified by social media rather than an established industry at scale.
Zhao believes their most important contribution may therefore be something less immediately measurable: international visibility.
There is also a less visible effect. The arrival of foreign tourists can prompt local residents to reconsider the value of their own everyday lives, Zhao noted.
"Farmers who are accustomed to regarding planting, harvesting and tending livestock as routine work may suddenly find outsiders treating those same activities as something worth traveling thousands of kilometers to experience," he said. 
That outside perspective can give ordinary agricultural work, local food and traditional customs a new sense of value, not only as tourism products, but as elements of local identity, Zhang said.
How can this social media traffic be turned into lasting tourism demand? Zhang believed that the key might not be intervening too heavily in the specific products that villages offer, but improving the basic conditions that allow international visitors to access them.
The government's role, the expert suggested, is to help bridge the "last mile," making rural destinations easier and safer to reach and navigate, while leaving room for villages and travelers themselves to determine what kind of experiences are meaningful.
And beyond economics, Zhang said, these encounters carry cultural exchange value.
"People-to-people exchanges can help dispel misunderstandings and allow the world to see another side of China: ordinary Chinese people, like people everywhere, value peace, stability and a prosperous life. That deeper cultural encounter may ultimately be one of the most valuable things international tourism can offer," he explained.
Kevin has not stopped thinking about the people and places he encountered in China's countryside. The experience changed his impression of rural China and made him want to return and stay longer.
"I would like to know more about what other people who have experienced these agricultural activities think," he said. "Is now the time to reconnect with this ancient practice?"
。　　近年来，依托得天独厚的滨海资源，威海深耕海洋经济，以科技创新赋能特色水产养殖、以金融“活水”浇灌蓝色产业升级，把蔚蓝海域变成富民兴产、可持续发展的“金饭碗”。　　成活率从10%到80%，海马养殖的突围之路　　在威海银泽生物科技股份有限公司(简称“银泽生物”)的养殖车间里，一只公海马收缩育儿袋，将数百尾蚊子大小的海马幼体喷入水中。

B | 　　这些微小生命降生后需要自行觅食。养殖过程中，只有小到肉眼几乎看不见的微型活虫，才能成为它们的第一口“口粮”。　　银泽生物董事长俞兰良介绍，2014年，该公司开始瞄准海马养殖赛道。彼时，受过度捕捞、海水污染以及海马天然繁殖率低等因素影响，全球海马产量显著下降。

C | 　　“最早买回一批海马种源，繁育没有成功。第二年想再买，种源企业也‘全军覆没’了。”俞兰良回忆说，之后该公司引进原产于澳大利亚的膨腹海马种源，又埋头研究了五年，最终攻克了海马大规模养殖技术。　　最关键的一跃，是海马幼体开口饵料的研发。

D | 在此之前，人工养殖海马幼体成活率仅10%，有了专属“婴儿餐”之后，海马幼体成活率升至80%。银泽生物工作人员在海马养殖车间检查海马生长情况。周艺伟 摄　　此外，该公司还建立了海马幼体质量快速鉴别技术，成功解决海马幼体开口、海马疾病防控等技术难题，搭建起海马全生命周期繁育养殖技术体系，海马大规模养殖技术处于世界先进水平。　　凭借坚守与技术突破，银泽生物逐步站稳行业脚跟，成为中国人工养殖海马产业化、规模化最大的公司之一，其人工养殖的海马在中国市场销量排名前三。　　从竭泽而渔到生态养护，守住海洋“金饭碗”　　如果说银泽生物的故事是“从无到有”，那同样位于威海的寻山集团有限公司(简称“寻山集团”)的发展历程则是“从抢到养”。　　寻山集团地处胶东半岛最东端的威海荣成，是以海洋种业、生态养殖、海洋食品、精深提取、休闲渔业为主导产业的农业产业化国家重点龙头企业，坐拥桑沟湾、爱伦湾两大天然海湾。

E | 　　20世纪60年代以前，当地渔业资源丰富，渔民却面临“守着金饭碗要饭吃”的困境，大量鲜鱼滞销腐烂，只能当作农田肥料。

F | 到了20世纪80年代，当地渔船数量渐多、过度捕捞泛滥，天然鱼虾资源几近枯竭。寻山集团海洋牧场运营经理卞大鹏(右一)在介绍养殖的海胆。周艺伟 摄　　寻山集团海洋牧场运营经理卞大鹏表示，1988年，该公司决定从“重捕捞、轻养殖”转向“科技兴海、以养兴渔”。“传统的粗放养殖是什么挣钱养什么、能养多少养多少，单品种高密度养殖很容易把一片海养废。”　　针对粗放养殖弊端，寻山集团摸索出了一套“多营养层次生态立体养殖模式”——海面上养海带、龙须菜，中层水域养鲍鱼、扇贝、牡蛎，底层水域养殖海参、真海鞘。

G | 各类海洋生物分层栖息，藻类植物净化水体、释放氧气，贝类滤食浮游生物，形成互补共生的自净循环系统。　　目前，寻山集团在桑沟湾及爱伦湾海域养殖基地面积达6.8万多亩，年产鲜海带35万吨；吸纳400多家养殖户到公司海区度夏养殖鲍鱼，鲍鱼年产量达1.5万吨；每年养殖生产牡蛎、扇贝、海参、真海鞘等3万多吨，成为中国重要的藻类、贝类养殖销售集散地和海上粮仓基地。　　金融“活水”精准滴灌海洋经济　　威海水产养殖企业的转型突围与成长壮大，离不开金融力量的长效陪伴。　　“农行与寻山集团的合作已超20年。”农行荣成市支行公司业务部副经理刘颂说，此前荣成海带产业遭遇海水温度异常冲击，行业经营承压，农行坚持不抽贷、不断贷，助力企业渡过难关。

H | 　　刘颂称，针对海域使用权难以抵押融资的行业痛点，农行率先在荣成试行海域使用权抵押贷款模式，盘活海洋无形资产。2026年一季度，农行荣成市支行投放6800万元(人民币，下同)蓝色金融专项贷款，助力寻山集团采购鲍鱼苗、海带苗与良种繁育技术升级。　　农行威海泽库支行行长刘栋介绍，针对银泽生物这类重研发、负债偏高的水产养殖企业，农行量身打造金融服务“组合拳”：通过农担公司发放300万元“金穗农担贷”纯信用贷款，又以“一项目一方案”追加两笔100万元惠农e贷纯信用经营贷款，免抵押、不增负，精准适配企业经营需求。　　随着山东省加快建设海洋强省，农行山东省分行制定《金融支持山东海洋经济高质量发展服务方案》，围绕服务海洋强省建设，探索创新养殖证抵押、海洋知识产权质押、海洋项目收益贷、资产盘活贷等产品，积极发行蓝色公司债、蓝色中期票据，大力支持龙头骨干企业、专精特新企业、中小微涉海主体等重点客户发展，打通金融服务海洋经济的“最后一公里”。　　目前，农行山东省分行金融服务海洋经济相关客户470余家。截至2026年6月末，该行海洋经济相关信贷余额972亿元，较年初增加89亿元。　　“水下看不见的东西，才是关键。”站在爱伦湾的码头上，卞大鹏指着一排排浮筏说，同样看不见的，是金融“活水”如何渗进这片海，不是冷冰冰的放贷收息，而是一场与企业、与生态共同成长的漫长陪伴。

Current article:http://www.shangfochengcongshuaizhuang.buzz/c9b77q3/3jsyn.html

Published on:08:01:46