永不磨灭的番号
Chinese retirees are turning hard-won time into journeys once confined to maps and documentaries_我的网站
A | 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.
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."
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.
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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B | 另一年的CES结束了，但关于它的讨论远未结束。作为世界上最大的技术消费展览会，每年这里都有大批的人。今年，参加CES的人数已超过18万人。作为CES的老司机，最好的证明是展会前的免费停车场在展会当天涨到了40美元。
C | 但今年，很多人觉得它“不如以前好”。随着全球科技产业“寒冬”的到来，仍有4000多家厂商参展，但无论是最新的产品还是未来可能出现的技术，都没有什么值得大惊小怪的。难怪有些人对他们过去所展示的产品或他们在新闻中听到的内容感到“厌烦”。但这是真的吗？除了赌博和看电视之外，第52届会议上举行的CES是否真的没有反映出科学技术的活力？经过三天的购物和深入的采访，我们看到的不仅仅是无聊，而是一些隐藏在无聊背后的东西。无论是平静的自动驾驶技术，人工智能语音助理，以及越来越多的5G终端，我们在CES上仍然有很多收获和经验。让我们听听我们的看法。少了花招，更务实一段作者：橡胶，极客主编，今年第四次参加CES，CES确实缺乏一些新的概念和花招产品，我看了一场更“务实”的消费电子展。
D | 在过去的两年里，英伟达的展前会已经成为CES重要的“开场秀”。
E | 黄仁勋将通过充满激情的演讲来展示英伟达在人工智能领域的雄心壮志。然而，今年，Nvidia“忽略”了自动驾驶仪和人工智能的内容，整个活动围绕着即将推出的新图形卡产品展开。这种务实的内容已成为CES 2019年的主题演讲。消费电子展往往被视为科技领域的风向标，“前瞻性”成为参展商衡量产品和技术的重要指标。在繁荣的背后，CES每年都会看到许多高端和低端产品，它们引人注目，足以出现，但很快就消失了。今年消费电子展最重要的变化之一是，制造商们将更多的量产产品摆上台面，并提供更多的现场体验产品。LG的卷发电视是今年CES的明星，但LG强调它不是概念产品。
F | 它将于今年下半年正式推出。索尼、三星和其他制造商已经在CES上展示了8K电视，这似乎离我们很远，但制造商愿意提供一个详细的销售时间表…今年的CES也能找到类似的例子。对于消费者来说，很高兴知道他们最喜欢的产品已经或将要批量生产，但整个展览的惊喜肯定会减少。似乎在“冬天”到来之前多卖点东西更重要。今年CES的实用主义也反映在人们对隐私和安全的关注上。
G | 在过去的一年里，许多互联网公司在隐私问题上“颠覆”，苹果甚至在消费电子展（CES）的主会场前投放了一则有意义的广告。
H | 当网络（控制应用）和人工智能语音助理成为越来越多的硬件产品的基础设备时，消费者会在新的时期后迅速关注产品的安全性。当今年CES与一些智能家居制造商进行沟通时，他们会在介绍产品参数后强调对隐私的关注。有趣的是，人们在互联网上的不安全感也扩展到了物质世界。今年，有更多的安全产品，如CES智能门锁/门铃。我相信大多数来自中国的编辑和记者在过去的一年里参加CES时都有一种紧张的感觉，或者是“害怕错过”。毕竟，经过十几个小时的长途飞行，每个人都想从CES中获取尽可能多的信息。事实上，关于消费电子产品的国内报道经常可以看到标题为“暴力”和“看穿”的文章，这在很大程度上也是在这种心态下产生的。今年我没有寻找新的概念，而是更喜欢CES展览本身，能够更平静地体验一些产品，这样我个人就可以接受这种变化。
I | 从应用程序控制到语音控制：谁是英雄，是极客选择的主笔，第二次参加CES，当人工智能真正进入每个人的生活，口号和宣传不再那么猖獗。由于潮湿事物的寂静，许多人今年似乎对CES感到厌烦，但在我看来，他们找到了一些隐藏的乐趣。例如，语音交互在科技大学迅飞的尝试中，使得看似怪异的墨水屏幕电子书成为一种支持记录和实时转录的办公工具。
J | 然后，例如，看似普通的模块化机器人玩具，结合语音交互，可以直接用一两句话控制其变形。这些事情过去不容易实现，但现在变得越来越特别了。一件事是今年，谷歌和亚马逊在消费电子展上的推广工作都比过去多。但是语音助手不再简单地以智能扬声器的形式显示，而是通过与生活相关的产品更准确地显示出来。例如，亚马逊收购智能门铃，更多地支持谷歌助手的电视机，甚至只要与物联网相关的产品可以同时支持这两个语音助手。其中一个原因是，2018年智能演讲者的总体增长是相关的。
K | 据亚马逊官员此前向媒体透露的数据，亚马逊的Alexa语音助手迄今已安装在一亿多台设备上。另一方面，谷歌表示，包括智能手机、智能手表和智能电视在内的所有类型的谷歌辅助设备都已售出10亿台。另一方面，通过天猫精灵、小艾同学等智能演讲者的洗礼，中国也完成了智能家居的快速升级，在一定程度上完成了家庭智能中心的转型。过去，通过手机连接手机和控制交换机的智能产品已经成为第一个通过手机连接的产品，不再需要再次使用手机。即使某些连接不再需要移动电话，它们也可以通过智能扬声器的语音控制进行连接。家庭控制中心的改造已经到了这个阶段，标志着智能家居场景的建设进入了一个新的阶段。在下一个5G时代，保持设备在线和连接将成为雄心勃勃的制造商追求的最终目标，也许这也是一只聪明的手。
L | 飞机起飞后的时间还有另一个预期的变化。大型和完整的CES：没有行业变化，每个人都想说同样的话：希格林，极客的视频产品经理，很难想象我第一次参加CES。
M | 作为一名在数码圈工作了近六年的“老”编辑，这是第一次参加CES展览，但正是因为在观看了MWC、IFA和Computex之后，你会发现你在追求大而完整。
N | 消费电子产品对这个行业没有什么意义。CES本身在成立之初没有一个行业定义。作为一个自1967年以来出现的展览，当时对电子的定义是非常单一的。但近年来，各行业的变化使人们更加关注消费电子产品的存在。例如，2016年，国内外汽车厂商疯狂涌入CES会场的自驾大爆发，无论是汽车厂商还是汽车驾驶技术供应商都在展示自己的解决方案，我们应该知道，以前的汽车厂商和CES技术没有关系。
o | .与此同时，AR/VR行业仍处于鼎盛时期。松下基于AR的CES化妆镜也吸引了人们的注意。也许这两件事让我印象最深刻的是消费电子展在过去两年。正是这两件事让我对消费电子产品产生了一些“误解”。当CES 2019真的来到展会，谷歌，三星，索尼和尼康，这些大工厂无疑是辉煌的。LVCC展馆的门至少要花两个小时才能与谷歌互动游戏、尼康无处不在的手提包以及三星“用钱建造”的展台保持一致。CES 2019仍处于聚光灯下。
p | 根据CES官方数据，展会总面积超过26万平方米，吸引了4500多家参展商。但冷静点，CES 2019真的有那么多产品引领行业变革吗？在CES公布前的活动中，我们没有看到太多令人惊讶的酷产品。在许多初创企业中，也有两三种值得注意的产品被“移交”。这些产品可能只是有意义的、创新的或对行业影响很小。此外，在发布之前，主要品牌将举行新产品发布，可能是因为大多数官方会议都不到45分钟，但在45分钟内，我们肯定能听到两个词-5g，汽车。有时这两个词“纠结”在一起，因为5G有更多的自驾车的可能性，但对于一个从业者来说，5G在2019年可能仍然是一个概念。试商业并没有带来商业的普及，而自驾游仍然是一个可见但不可触及的未来。
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