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Chinese retirees are turning hard-won time into journeys once confined to maps and documentaries_我的网站

一 |     北京时间7月17日凌晨，月之暗面公司发布开源大模型Kimi K3。据报道，该模型总参数规模达2.8万亿，是目前全球最大的开源模型，能处理文字和图像，重点面向编程、知识工作和智能代理任务，发布即可通过应用和API调用，完整模型权重计划于7月27日前公开。    Editor's Note:
With China's population of seniors over 60 surpassing 300 million, ensuring a happy and fulfilling life for all seniors has become a pressing issue for both families and the nation. How can the new generation of seniors in China break away from traditional norms and embrace a different lifestyle, supported by AI technology, multiculturalism and an elder-friendly society? 
The series "Old Age, New Trends" explores emerging trends in the silver economy, creative social norms among senior citizens and innovative eldercare services. It examines the opportunities and challenges presented by an aging society, highlighting the diverse lifestyles of seniors and the booming eldercare industry in China. Beneath these new trends lies a reflection of Chinese modernization, which aims to provide more secure systems and dignified lives for its senior population.

    Chinese elderly tourists pose for a photo during a trip to Antarctica. Photo: Courtesy of Zhang XinyuanThe camera moves across ice and water of Greenland before settling on a group of travelers speaking Putonghua. Many are retired. They have come a long way from China to a place that, for much of their working lives, belonged more to maps and documentaries than to any realistic travel plan.
Polar journeys require money, good health and patience for long flights and itineraries that may change with the weather. Yet on ships bound for Antarctica, and tours reaching into the Arctic, retired teachers, doctors, researchers and business managers are becoming easier to find. 
After decades scheduled around work and family, they now possess something that was once just as scarce as money: uninterrupted time.
By the end of 2025, China had 323.38 million people aged 60 or above, accounting for 23 percent of its population, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Their incomes, health and family circumstances vary enormously, and polar travelers remain a small, relatively affluent group. Still, their choices bring one change into sharp focus: For some among this new generation of retirees, growing older no longer means simply drawing the boundaries of life inward. It may also be a chance to return to journeys postponed for decades.
Behind every such journey lies a practical calculation: Is the body ready? Is the expense manageable? Can family responsibilities be set aside long enough? The answers are reshaping both travel products and ideas about life after work. At the farthest reaches of the map, some Chinese retirees are asking a new question: With their careers behind them and years still ahead, where do they want to go next?
No longer waiting
In early 2025, 63-year-old He Man stood on a snow-covered slope at Port Charcot in Antarctica and looked back toward the sea. 
The Silver Endeavour, the ship that had brought her there, had shrunk to a white speck against the blue water. Penguins wandered nearby. "Standing there, I suddenly realized how small I was - and how small my problems were," she told the Global Times.
It was a journey He Man had postponed for most of her adult life. Before retiring, she was a deputy chief physician at the dental center of Shenzhen People's Hospital in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province. During her 38-year medical career, most days she got up at 6 am, arrived at the hospital around 7 and began seeing patients at 8. On busy days, patients queued up outside her consulting room and she could barely stop for a drink of water.
During the last 20 years of her career, she had no more than 15 days of annual leave each year. Once time was set aside for caring for elderly relatives and looking after her child, what remained was enough only for short trips. She had visited several countries in Europe and North America, but Antarctica remained beyond reach.
"Antarctica had always been a dream, but I never really dared to imagine going," she said. The possibility became real only after friends from university made the journey in 2023 and 2024 and encouraged her to follow. By then, she had retired at 60. More important than anything else, she said, was that her time was finally her own.
In October 2024, she booked a place on an expedition ship carrying about 200 passengers. She went with her husband, a neighboring couple and another couple with whom they often traveled, forming a group of six. 
The early-booking cruise fare exceeded 150,000 yuan ($22,250) per person. She and her husband later paid another 40,000 yuan each to upgrade their flights to business class.
"On a journey this long, at our age, we should treat ourselves well," she said. The flights between China and South America alone took more than 30 hours. The entire journey eventually lasted 41 days, combining an 11-day Antarctic cruise with visits to Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Chile. "Since we had flown so far, we wanted to see it all in one go."
The journey began with a lesson in polar uncertainty. To catch a period of calmer weather across the Drake Passage, the ship moved its scheduled departure from noon to 6 am. 
The couple reached the port in Chile before dawn after barely sleeping, only to learn that replenishment and repairs had taken longer than expected. The weather window closed, and the captain diverted through the Beagle Channel while waiting two days for conditions to improve.
The retired doctor did not regard the delay as time lost. Marine biologists, ornithologists, geologists and polar historians delivered lectures on board throughout the day, while passengers watched the fjords outside. "There were many older people on the ship. We had time, and nobody was really in a hurry," she said.
When she finally stepped onto the Antarctic snow, she said she was so overwhelmed that she wanted to cry. The trip did not remove the pressures waiting for her at home, but it changed the scale on which she viewed them. 
"When I feel stressed or upset now, I think of Antarctica," she said. "Life is only so long. Don't hold yourself too tightly. Let go when you should."
    Scenery of Antarctica Photo: Courtesy of Zhang XinyuanBeyond one journey
According to He Man, people aged 60 or above accounted for more than half of the passengers on board, while Chinese travelers also made up more than half. After returning home, some of the travelers from Shenzhen created a WeChat group, while others had already begun discussing their next destination.
Travel agencies specializing in expedition cruises have noticed the same pattern. Zhang Xinyuan, founder and CEO of Newayer Cruises, told the Global Times that the company entered the Antarctic market in 2008 and sent its first group the following year. It has since served approximately 6,000 travelers on trips to the Arctic and Antarctica. 
Among its customers, more than 65 percent are aged over 50, with those between 55 and 65 forming the largest group.
The makeup of that group has changed. Before 2020, Zhang said, most of the agency's polar customers were private business owners, senior executives and their family members. In recent years, the professional backgrounds of its customers have become more varied, with retired teachers, doctors, researchers and managers from public institutions increasingly represented. Retired women traveling alone have also become more visible.
Their journeys do not necessarily end after one polar voyage. Zhang once regarded Antarctica as a once-in-a-lifetime destination, but found that some customers continued on to the Arctic, the Galapagos Islands or wildlife reserves in Africa. 
She cited a recently retired couple who booked trips to both Antarctica and the Arctic. While still aboard the Arctic cruise, they asked to reserve places on a southern Africa itinerary planned for the following year.
Industry data suggest that this is a growing, though still expensive, segment of the travel market. During the 2024-25 Antarctic season, Chinese nationals accounted for 10 percent of passengers traveling with operators belonging to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, or IAATO, the second-largest share after the US. 
In the 2025-26 season, IAATO operators recorded 85,195 visitors who landed in Antarctica and another 27,217 cruise-only passengers. The association said China had seen the greatest post-pandemic increase among the main sources of Antarctic travelers. 
Data released by Tongcheng Travel offer a closer view of the high-end market. From January to September 2025, travelers aged between 50 and 70 accounted for more than 70 percent of users booking outbound luxury cruises on the platform. Among customers purchasing polar cruise products priced above 100,000 yuan, more than 90 percent were classified by the company as silver travelers.
As the customer base changes, the product is changing with it. Zhang said the longest flights, rather than the cruise itself, often present the greatest physical challenge. On board, travelers can decide whether to join shore landings, hikes or Zodiac cruises according to their physical fitness and health condition. 
At Newayer Cruises, travelers aged between 75 and 80 are generally asked to provide medical documentation and travel with a family member. Its group products include emergency medical and evacuation insurance, while tour leaders accompany passengers from departure.
The agency has also added Chinese-language services and meals familiar to Chinese passengers, while leaving more space in itineraries rather than packing each day with activities. Flexibility is needed for reasons beyond the traveler's own health. 
    A ship sails among icebergs in Antarctica. Photo: VCGThe Arctic can wait
Polar travel occupies the expensive outer edge of a much broader change in how older Chinese people spend their time. By the end of 2025, China had 323.38 million people aged 60 or above, accounting for 23 percent of the population. Those aged 65 or above numbered 223.65 million, or 15.9 percent. 
The National Bureau of Statistics noted that people aged between 60 and 64 made up a relatively large part of the older population, and that many were still healthy and participated in social activities. 
Travel is becoming one outlet for this age group. Data cited by the National Development and Reform Commission show that older travelers account for more than 20 percent of China's total tourist numbers. 
Du Peng, dean of the School of Population and Health and director of the Institute of Gerontology at Renmin University of China, noted in a CCTV interview that more than 20 million people would enter old age each year over the following decade. Compared with earlier generations, he said, many would be better educated, assess their own health more positively and use the internet with greater ease. 
Policy is beginning to respond to this more varied picture of old age. A State Council document on developing the silver economy calls for replacing rigid age restrictions on travel with assessments based more closely on health, while expanding travel insurance and strengthening consumer protection. 
Still, the retirees boarding polar ships should not be treated as a portrait of all 323 million older Chinese people. They are a relatively small group able to meet three demanding conditions at once: sufficient savings, good health and control over their time.
Therefore, what these polar travelers demonstrate is not that every retirement should become an expensive adventure. Rather, they show that later life is becoming less uniform: rest and care remain essential, but for some people, retirement may also contain study, creative work, new friendships and journeys once postponed by jobs and family obligations.
Back in Shenzhen, He Man now divides her Xiaohongshu (RedNote) posts between dental-health advice and notes from her travels. Antarctica has been crossed off the list, but the list itself continues to grow. 
She is considering a trip to see the animal migration in Africa and another to watch the aurora in Iceland. The Arctic is lower down on her list.
The Arctic can wait. This time, the delay is hers to decide.

。         发布24小时内，K3在大模型竞技场（Arena）的前端编程匿名测试中登顶，开发者对它的偏好超过Anthropic的Claude Fable 5和OpenAI的GPT-5.6 Sol。在独立评测机构Artificial Analysis的智能指数上，K3综合排名全球第三。         评测平台Arena的联合创始人兼首席执行官阿纳斯塔西奥斯·安杰洛普洛斯表示，Kimi K3的推出“可能是今年最大的一次发布”，它标志着开源的中国模型开始超过美国的闭源模型，“更多结果正在陆续出来，很可能继续显示它处在第一梯队的顶端。”          ▲人们在上海世界人工智能大会参观月之暗面的Kimi K3展台          马斯克从称赞到对标          美国开发者把系统模型换成K3          K3登顶后，反应最先出现在美国开发者圈子里，有人把系统里的模型换成K3，有人当天就开始拿它搭产品。         Kimi K3发布当天，特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克在一则评测帖文下留言：“Impressive（令人印象深刻）。”          两天后，马斯克公布下一代Grok的训练进展时，把Kimi K3列为目标，称新模型“或许能够”超过Kimi K3。         月之暗面回应：“欢迎加入超2万亿俱乐部。”          Dropbox前首席技术官、South Park Commons合伙人阿迪蒂亚·阿加瓦尔在发布当天写道，他正在把公司系统里的Fable模型换掉。         Vercel创始人兼首席执行官吉列尔莫·劳赫在7月16日发布的评测中写道，K3在Next.js网页工程测试中的表现超过Fable，以更短时间获得了接近的成功率。他称，这是开放模型首次在这套综合网页工程测试中领先所有闭源模型。         美国科技记者马克斯·温巴赫让一群Kimi K3的代理在浏览器里重建macOS 27，连拟真界面和原生应用一起做，跑了三个小时，一次任务用掉他当月60%的Kimi额度。前AMD显卡业务负责人、英特尔前高级副总裁拉贾·科杜里提到，K3在一次48小时的自主运行里，用开源工具设计、优化并验证了一款芯片。         有开发者展示了一个结合多种玩法的游戏。据他的帖文，K3使用约60万token完成这个项目，API费用为3.24美元；相同token用量如果使用Fable 5和GPT-5.6 Sol，费用分别为10.80美元和6美元。Kimi官方账号随后转发了该项目。         评测和项目展示发布后，用户访问量继续增加。据月之暗面发布的信息，K3上线48小时后，用户请求量逼近现有集群的承载极限，公司暂停面向个人用户的新订阅。

二 | 企业业务负责人黄震昕表示，团队此前做过流量预案，但实际需求仍超出预期，因此优先保障付费客户，并临时限制新用户。

三 |          在匿名测试、独立评测和访问量数据陆续公布后，Mozilla首席技术官拉菲·克里科里安称，美国AI实验室“明显感到担忧”。         美国投入近1万亿美元          总统科技顾问仍说：这样会输掉竞赛          在围绕Kimi K3的一轮讨论中，纽约大学名誉教授、AI行业评论者加里·马库斯转发了一张中美AI投入对比图，并写道：“（美国）国会应该调查。认真调查。”          高盛图表显示，2027年美国主要云服务商的资本开支预计接近1万亿美元，约为中国预测投入的8倍。         美国分析人士指出，美国拥有更多先进芯片、更大的数据中心预算，中国公司却用小得多的算力做到了逼近前沿。如果中国AI实验室能够以较低成本接近美国模型的表现，美国接近1万亿美元的基础设施投入将更难解释。         闭源模型可以对每一次调用收费，还能控制安全规则、用户入口和价格，开放模型的变现路径要曲折得多。         开放模型通常还要靠更低的价格换取开发者采用，但K3没有被贴上低价标签。据报道，它的API每百万输出token定价15美元，高于月之暗面上一代模型的4美元，也高于部分开放权重同行。         在完成一项具体任务的综合成本上，据Artificial Analysis测算，K3约0.94美元，接近GPT-5.6 Sol的1.04美元，约为Claude Opus 4.8（1.80美元）的一半。

四 | 美国银行研究分析师的一份报告也给出同一方向的判断，表示K3是迄今定价最高的中国AI模型，但仍只有GPT-5.6 Sol的一半。

五 |          黄震昕说，Kimi的商业模式对标海外成熟头部AI企业，“开源模型、中国大模型不该被贴上低价标签。我们做出了SOTA级模型，也能匹配合理的商业定价。

六 | ”          关于Kimi K3的评测结果也进入了美国政策顾问的讨论。美国总统科技顾问委员会联席主席戴维·萨克斯称，K3登上前端编程榜首“令人担忧”。

七 | 他还指出，这是第一次有中国模型拿下编程头名。他随后列出美国正在给自己增加的阻力，包括阻挡数据中心建设、叠加州级监管、推动前沿模型发布前审批程序，“这就是输掉AI竞赛的方式。”萨克斯写道。         当地时间7月21日，美国财政部长贝森特公开谈到中国开源模型。他表示，美国政府将审查有代表性的中国模型。         美国追问：          为什么先做出来的是一家中国公司          政策讨论之外，美国人也在追问，为什么先走这一步的是一家中国公司。美国投资人、学者和媒体的讨论主要集中在三个方面。         第一类答案，美国头部实验室不愿放弃已经建立起来的闭源生意。         美国风险投资机构Benchmark合伙人比尔·格利写道：“开放前沿已经不再只是一个中国故事。”他认为，AI经济中的几乎所有参与者都有理由偏爱开放的基础模型，“只有大型既有企业Anthropic和OpenAI例外，它们的命运取决于维持封闭”。

八 |          第二类答案，美国施加的芯片限制迫使中国公司把更多工程投入放在技术突破和发明上。         美国限制中国获得先进AI芯片，本意是拉开算力差距。

九 | 澳大利亚新南威尔士大学计算机科学家托比·沃尔什说，中国公司在芯片受限的情况下仍造出了前沿模型，“人们不禁会想，或许正是这种‘必要’成了发明之母”。这一点在Kimi K3身上似乎有印证，它虽有2.8万亿总参数，却采用混合专家架构，处理每个token时只激活896个专家里的16个，靠Kimi Delta Attention和注意力残差等结构改动，使整体扩展效率比上一代K2提升约2.5倍。         第三类答案，人才最终选择在中国创业，美国没能留下杨植麟。

十 |          ▲月之暗面创始人杨植麟在2026年中关村论坛发表演讲（资料图片）          月之暗面创始人杨植麟从清华大学毕业后，在卡内基梅隆大学取得计算机科学博士学位，随后在Google Brain和Meta AI工作，2023年回国创办月之暗面。

十一 | K3受到关注后，一些美国投资人、创业者和AI研究人员发问：如果杨植麟留在美国，结果是否会有所不同？为什么一个在美国顶尖体系里受过训练的研究者，最后在中国组队做出了Kimi K3？          投资人维诺德·科斯拉怪罪美国的移民政策，称它“正在吓跑聪明的人才”。

十二 |          杨植麟的博士导师、卡内基梅隆大学的鲁斯·萨拉霍丁诺夫曾担任苹果的AI研究主管。         据报道，K3发布后，他公开写道：“这对开源社区是多大的胜利！感觉植麟昨天才从我的实验室毕业。”他表示，杨植麟实际上有很多个留在美国的机会，也有能力进入苹果这样的大型科技公司，不过，他很早就打算回国创办自己的公司。         红星新闻记者 邓纾怡          编辑 邓旆光 审核 高升祥。

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