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轩辕剑之天之痕

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

环太平洋

一 | 1月10日，小米举行了红米品牌独立会议，并在品牌独立后发布了第一款红米Note7。全血版660，4800万像素超清晰摄像头，双面2.5D玻璃机身，999元起价，让我非常期待小米的另一个动作，1999元的明龙855红米手机。

二 | 在评论领域，很多读者认为小米2018年是“悬而未决”的一年。 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 Xinyuan

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: VCG

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.

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三 | 小米8周年的杰作“小米8透明探索版”在屏幕指纹识别方面落后于传统旗舰核心配置。尽管3D结构光的应用声称是安卓阵营中的第一个，但该技术在哪里应用？目前还没有小米8透明探索版3D结构光可用于支付宝和微信支付面支付新闻。另一方面，在2018年，oppo拿出oppo find x，vivo拿出vivo nex，华为跟进了Android升级，比小米更“狂热”，荣光还拿出了麒麟980和Slider Magic 2。在红米品牌大会上，雷军的朋友和商人都非常热情。

四 | 他没有隐瞒，他直接说出了上述四家公司的产品名称，并记下了红米7号，红米7号的售价为999元。看着雷军在台上“挂”的朋友们，小编正期待着雷军会再一次把这一巨大的努力放在产品的价格上，履行他“慷慨”的承诺。2011年10月，智能手机市场的第一款产品发布。在对摩托罗拉的里程碑垂涎三尺之后，小米以1999元的价格打破了我对智能手机价格的理解。Millet Mobile 1于2011年推出，配备了高通公司的首款双核处理器，主频为1.5 GHz，4英寸高清液晶屏，1GB内存4 GB，以及800万像素摄像头。

五 | 这样一个核心配置，当时的性能是一样的，1999年的价格仍然纠缠着2.3万元的里程碑，我惊呼，“这个TM是假的！”与当时梦寐以求的摩托车里程碑相比，德意OMAP3430处理器，550兆赫主频，256兆内存512兆内存，3.7英寸显示屏。

六 | 小米手机，出生发烧，是值得的。随着早期小米手机的推出，小米上贴了两个标签，一个是“性能怪兽”，上面堆满了顶级的核心硬件，另一个是1999年的“价格屠夫”。2011年，售价199元的手机最多只能算是一款中端手机。当时，当我想买一部诺基亚的高端手机时，34000元的价格是必不可少的。“小米1”1999年推出的人民币令消费者对高规格硬件价格的看法焕然一新。

七 | 然而，谷子的价格，标志性的1999元，已经消失，因为谷子6号的发布。小米6的起价已升至2299元。此后，小米8的年轻版于2018年发布，再次提价。苗龙660处理器，背面指纹识别…这台机器没有让我感觉到原来的谷子“发烧”的感觉，也没有让我感觉到善良的感觉。虽然在雷军的早期，很多消费者听到了更多的“小米是为发烧而生”的口号，但小变觉得当时雷军说的另一句话更感人。

八 | 以1999元的价格，雷军表示，他会用更实惠的价格让消费者体验到最先进的高科技。以一种读者更熟悉的方式，雷军的声明更“有价值”而不是“发烧”。小米的早期产品确实如此，当时的工业设计很粗糙，硬件一流，售价为1999美元。关注小米新闻发布会的消费者应该记住，在小米产品发布的早期，除了跑点外，雷军还非常愿意提及高通的旗舰处理器、大内存、高清高清屏幕，这些都是坚实的，让消费者体验到当时的先进高科技。凭借如此高的性价比，在抢占中国手机用户从功能机器到智能手机的红利的同时，中国3G网络覆盖的成熟卖场“小米一夜”成为了许多消费者抢占的品牌。那个时候，在小边的大学宿舍楼里，抓起一部小米手机是一件很有价值的事情。虽然诺基亚的手机仍高达3000元人民币，但许多手机制造商还没有在硬件概念上打过牌，小米告诉消费者什么是高端手机处理器，小米告诉消费者手机也可以有大内存，小米告诉消费者可以在更智能的手机上使用锐利的屏幕。小米告诉消费者，这些加起来只有199元。当时，雷军说，小米硬件是亏本出售的，没有盈利。到2018年，小米五金整体利润率不超过5%。雷军告诉消费者，小米仍然需要成为价格合理的产品。小米的哪些产品将在2018年发布？换言之，即使小米推出的一些产品价格优厚，在国内“亲朋好友”的环境下，这些价格优厚的产品是否仍具有原来小米手机的性价比优势？我怀念小米的性价比，雷军说，最实惠的价格让消费者体验到最先进的高科技。小米的海外品牌Pocophone告诉我们什么？2018年8月22日，小米在印度发布了带有Mirong845处理器的F1手机，引起了外国媒体对“价格战”和“新旗舰杀手”的讨论。这与当时推出小米手机1时国内媒体的讨论非常相似，而小米抓取的重点是性价比极高。小米袖珍琴的概念很简单。它不需要非常复杂的设计。

九 | 它是最原始最简单的塑料。没有没有2.5D没有复杂的倒角和其他。高通845处理器不够？4000 mAh大容量电池足够吗？1200万像素和500万像素是否足够高？影响到手机硬件的基本体验，PocophoneF1给你几乎最高的，然后给你一个液冷散热，给你2000元左右的价格范围。或者，凭借其简单而残酷的方法，一个全新的手机品牌Pophone在推出三个月后，凭借其首款产品F1，成功赢得了70万用户。普通消费者对智能手机的价格因素很敏感。小米Pophone品牌的推出意味着小米仍将遵循一条经济有效的路线。从这个角度来看，国内独立的红米品牌可能能够重新承载具有成本效益的旗帜。事实上，在品牌大会上，雷军是死在成本绩效的概念上。红米品牌的独立性可以说是撕掉了低端和低成本的简单标签，不再局限于“千元机器”市场，重新贴上了性价比高的标签，或许会继续继承雷军最初提出的最实惠价格的建议，让消费者体验到最先进的高科技。与坐坐不同小米品牌成立之初，第一次没有分红。目前，有一家以上的小米生产商失去了性价比。自2013年7月推出第一代手机产品以来，红米手机品牌已被小米冠以“千元机器”的品牌。由于处理器过时或不足，“应用程序较少”的小内存可以顺畅地流动。品牌独立后，先锋红米注7告诉消费者，红米应该撕掉“便宜”和“低性能”的标签。品牌独立后，红米不得不进入更长的产品线布局，这不是一个隐藏的东西。即使在品牌独立大会之后，雷军也直接爆料了红米米米隆855处理器的消息。雷军在红米品牌大会上高喊：“生死无所谓，你拒绝做什么就做什么”，这让我对999元秋龙855红米手机充满了希望。另一方面，红米生产线的扩张也可能对小米的业绩和收益有好处。在红米品牌独立发布大会上，雷军宣布，截至2018年第三季度，全球红米手机出货总量达到2.78亿部，这意味着自该品牌手机推出以来，年平均出货量已达到5560万部。从小米2018年的数据来看，10月底手机销量超过1亿部。当红米产品线拓宽到入门、中高端机型时，红米品牌手机的受众必然会扩大。此外，雷军的“随你便”精神和性价比比继此精神之后，毫无疑问，红米牌手机在整批小米手机中的比例将进一步提高。

十 | 目前，消费者对手机的价格仍然很敏感，性价比手段无疑是拉动出货量的有效手段之一。为什么我要红米磨龙855手机的价格是199元？高通公司每年都会发布一款手机旗舰处理器，带来新技术，如Miaolong 855的人工智能体验。有了这个处理器的智能手机的价格越低，每年更换它的成本就越低，而且我每年体验最先进技术的门槛也就越低。其次，对我来说，手机基本操作的顺畅和多任务处理的效率是我选择手机的两个重要前提。当这些条件得到满足时，比起优雅的设计和车身材料，我更喜欢更实惠的价格。第三，即使我不想每年更新一次，我也不希望我买的手机在一年或更长时间后无法处理新的应用程序或技术。作为一个普通的消费者，我希望我能以更低的成本使用更好的硬件。