小姨多鹤

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

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    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?"
。    拱墅区委一届十次全体（扩大）会议晒出半年成绩单，一组关键指标领跑全市：制造业投资增长106.4%、增速全市第一；人工智能规上核心产业营收增长61.7%，数字经济核心产业增加值增速15.2%，居全市前列。

二 | 这一组指标彼此呼应、互为印证，清晰勾勒出一条发展主线：从今年年初“中国算谷”创新发展地标破局起势，到时隔数月拱墅再次明确了推进“中国算谷”建设加快成势，该区算力底座持续加固、产业链条不断延伸，走出一条主城区适配人工智能时代的高质量发展新路。投资增速领跑 算力筑基与制造升级同频共振“106.4%的制造业投资增速，领跑全市，其中数字经济产业投资占比较往年明显上升。”拱墅区科技经信局相关负责人表示。依托杭钢云、浙江云两大枢纽，拱墅区在算力规模持续攀升的同时，加快布局服务器、高速硅光模块等核心硬件制造，补上算力产业链关键一环，推动“用算力”向“造算力”的跃升。

三 | 走进华芯速联高速硅光模块智能制造基地，一条条高度自动化的生产线正有序运转。光芯片经过高精度贴片、金丝键合、透镜耦合等一系列精密工序，最终组装成外形酷似大号U盘的光模块。这个6月26日正式投产的项目，是浙江首个具备“硅光芯片—模块—测试”全流程能力的制造基地，从落地起就备受业界关注。光模块是算力“带宽”环节的核心硬件。如果把算力比作仓库里的货物，光模块就是通往外界的“高速公路”。全球AI算力需求爆发，高速光模块供需缺口持续扩大，巨大的市场缺口驱动了产线的落地。而华芯速联的“速度”本身就是一种经济信号。

四 | 基地采用“边投产、边建设”的滚动模式，首个车间已正式投产，整体规划的8个车间预计明年一季度可全部建成，届时可年产800G/1.6T光模块500万至600万只，将跻身全球光模块行业第一梯队。

五 | 华芯速联所在的杭钢半山基地，曾经承载了杭州非常重要的工业记忆。在关停钢铁产能之后，杭钢迎来新一轮硬核产业回归，只不过这次不再是高炉与钢材，而是服务器、光模块、智算机架与新一代信息基础设施。与基地一路之隔，总投资16.3亿元、总建筑面积30.83万平方米的杭钢里·云创中心（算力装备产业园）也已开工建设，聚焦算力卡、内存、硬盘、网卡等核心部件的国产化研发与制造。从“工业锈带”到“算力秀带”，杭钢半山基地的“算力再造”可以说是拱墅发展算力经济的一个缩影。作为杭州传统主城与老工业基地，拱墅要打造“中国算谷”，既不是简单复制园区模式，也不是单纯追求规模扩张，而是立足主城禀赋、空间禀赋、产业禀赋。上半年制造业投资增长，相当一部分的资金投向算力装备制造、智算基础设施、数字核心装备等高精尖领域，推动传统工业存量转型与新兴产业增量崛起同步发生，其本质正是产业结构的深刻重塑。产业乘势而上 算力赋能与数字创新双向提速算力底座不断夯实，直接转化为产业增长的强劲动能。本次拱墅区委全会明确提出：以“中国算谷”和“115X”先进制造业集群建设为总牵引，系统塑造全域创新优势。拱墅坚持“算力+模型+场景”一体推进，集聚头部大模型企业，培育垂直领域应用生态，推动算力技术与文创、医疗、农业、都市经济等产业深度融合，让算力从机房走向市场、从技术变为产值。今年上半年，人工智能规上核心产业营收增长61.7%，数字经济核心产业增加值增速15.2%，这也意味着大模型研发、算法创新、场景应用进入快速释放期，算力对全域数字产业的带动效应持续增强。从成果来看，从DeepSeek大模型引领创新，到一批本土大模型完成备案，再到全国首个文旅领域国家人工智能应用中试基地落地建设，“中国算谷”建设起势有力。扎根拱墅三十年的博采传媒，正是拱墅AI产业的“腰部力量”代表，其自主研发的“墨客大模型”已入选浙江省首批“人工智能+文化”重点模型。通过墨客的节点式可视化编排系统，剧本、视觉、制作、输出被封装为标准化节点，创作者只需像搭积木一样拖拽编排，就能在一张无限画布上串联起脚本、分镜与视频。

六 | “我们一方面借助算力中心的算力训练模型进行应用端开发，一方面又进行本地化部署，目前除了墨客大模型赋能影视内容创作者，还自主开发了完整虚拟制片技术，并成功应用于全国首部全虚拟制作大型纪录片《吴越国》。”博采传媒相关负责人表示。

七 | 这样的“腰部力量”不止博采传媒一家。润达医疗在DeepSeek-V4发布当天即实现零时差适配，用于临床，相当于给基层医生配了“随身专家团”；托普云农、浙数文旅、新中大等一批垂直领域企业，形成“一个开源基座、多个垂直场景”的格局。

八 | 这种“腰部力量”的厚度，正是“中国算谷”区别于单纯算力堆砌的关键——技术底座之上，有了真实的应用场景和商业闭环，形成“需求牵引供给、供给创造市场”的正循环。算力赋能与数字创新的双向提速，还得益于政府端的高效协同。华芯速联于去年12月2日拿地，今年3月初厂房交付，仅用92天。

九 | “拱墅速度”的背后是全区在基建配套等环节的精准赋能。30亿元人工智能产业基金、“人工智能22条”专项政策，以及“DeepSeek+”开源生态先导区的启动，构成了一个政府引导、市场主导的复合驱动体系。乘势而上，下一步，拱墅已明确要加快在“中国算谷”三个主攻赛道成势见效，即以DeepSeek为引领的开源生态先导区、以国家人工智能应用中试基地为引领的文化科创示范区和以浙江云、杭钢云为引领的算力经济集聚区，做强“中国算谷”创新发展地标，推动算力与产业、城市、文化深度融合，为区域高质量发展注入源源不断的数字动能。

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