天涯明月刀
书名：但愿人长久|作者：笑无语|本书类别：古言|更新时间：00:06:11|字数：3896字
一 |
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.
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.
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?"
。 作者丨晨阳 编辑丨小龙 图源丨Meshy 当文字、图像与视频相续被大模型彻底重构，生成式AI的终极之战正式推向了最为复杂、也最具物理深度的维度——3D空间智能。 7月20日，AI 3D内容生成平台Meshy宣布完成近4亿美元B轮融资，投后估值超过100亿元人民币。 本轮由IDG资本、经纬中国、Monolith砺思资本等顶级投资机构和战略投资方共同投资，Granite Asia、红杉中国、BAI资本、源码资本等现有股东超额跟投，持续加注。
二 | 这是Meshy成立以来首次对外公布估值，一举刷新了AI 3D赛道单轮融资规模与估值两项纪录，也是全球AI 3D领域迄今最高的估值。 这家三年前推出全球首个可公开访问的3D生成式AI产品的公司，如今已积累超过1200万注册用户，累计生成模型超过1亿个。 就在上月，Meshy的3D生成技术还作为典型案例出现在苹果全球开发者大会的主题演讲中，也是AI 3D领域唯一的一家。 01从姚班到百亿：一位图形学天才的创业征途 Meshy的创始人兼CEO胡渊鸣，1994年出生，初中时便在亚洲与太平洋地区信息学奥林匹克竞赛中拿下银牌；高中进入江苏扬州中学后，高一斩获全国青少年信息学奥林匹克联赛一等奖，锁定清华保送资格，高二再夺全国青少年信息学奥林匹克竞赛金牌；2013年，他被保送进入清华大学“姚班”。
三 | 本科毕业后，他赴麻省理工学院（MIT）攻读博士，进入CSAIL（计算机科学与人工智能实验室）深造，师从计算机图形学与计算摄影学领域的顶级泰斗——Frédo Durand 教授（ACM Fellow，Halide 语言共同发明人，其研究被广泛应用于 Google Pixel 图像引擎及 Adobe 系列软件）与 William T. Freeman 教授（ACM/IEEE Fellow）。 Meshy的创始人兼CEO胡渊鸣 在MIT的日子里，他开启了更加惊人的“加速度”模式：仅博一期间便在SIGGRAPH、NeurIPS等顶级学术会议发表6篇论文；13个月完成硕士论文，3年半便拿到博士学位。
四 | 博士期间，他独立全栈开发出开源并行计算框架「太极」（Taichi），突破了单GPU十亿粒子的仿真极限。
五 | 2020年年底，他用99行代码实现了原本需要数千行才能完成的材料点法模拟，复刻了《冰雪奇缘》中的雪花特效，登上了各大社交平台的热搜。 “太极”在计算机图形学领域产生了深远影响，至今在GitHub获得超2.7万 Star，已成为全球图形学与高性能计算的重要底层基础设施。 2021年，胡渊鸣博士毕业后回国创立了太极图形，联合创始人兼CTO匡冶同样履历耀眼——清华大学学士、哈佛大学计算机科学硕士、前Google软件工程师。公司专注于图形学、编译器、高性能计算与人工智能相关技术，很快便宣布完成5000万美元A轮融资。
六 | 胡渊鸣和联合创始人兼CTO匡冶 然而，创业的剧本并没有沿着“天才光环”的预期走下去。
七 | 团队最早试图推动Taichi这类底层技术的商业化，后来又沿着图形学能力去做渲染器、做3D工具，18个月里连续两次转型，市场反馈却始终不够乐观。 真正的转折来自一次用户反馈。 2022年，团队做了一款3D工具推给用户试用，得到的回复却相当直接：“我不会为你们这个软件付费，但你把里面的3D模型拿出来卖，一个5块钱，我倒可能会买。
八 | ” 这句话打翻了团队之前的所有努力——花了大量时间打磨的软件本身，并不是用户眼里的付费对象。 但否定之中藏着转机。 既然语言、图片都在被重新生产，3D资产会不会也开始进入同一个阶段？胡渊鸣意识到，如果用户真正愿意掏钱买的是模型本身，而不是背后的软件，那么公司应该去做的，也许不是继续证明底层技术有多好，而是直接把“生成3D资产”这件事做成产品。 2023年，Meshy正式推出，成为全球首批将AI驱动的3D生成作为公开产品推向市场的公司之一。
九 | 在团队构成上，Meshy汇聚了来自计算机图形学、人工智能与3D艺术领域的全球顶尖人才，团队成员毕业于MIT、斯坦福、伯克利等世界一流高校，并曾任职于英伟达、谷歌、Meta、微软等高科技企业。 这支兼具学术深度与产业经验的团队，是Meshy能够在图形学与大模型训练两套能力上都保持领先的根本保障。 02从“可用”到“生产”：产品力与商业化的双重验证 Meshy做的事情就是用AI把一段文字、一张图，变成一个能直接拿来用的3D模型。 平台支持文字转3D、图像转3D、AI上色、动画以及API工作流。 用户可以从文本描述、参考图片或创意概念出发，生成可预览、可编辑、可导出的3D资产，随时投入游戏开发、3D打印、AR/VR、产品设计、教育和内容创作使用。 技术层面的核心突破在于，Meshy率先把AI生成的3D从“屏幕上看起来可用”推进到“能够真正投入生产”。 生成的模型既可直接用于游戏，也能被3D打印为实物。
十 | 过去需要专业美术团队、两周时间才能完成的工作，如今一分钟、一美元即可完成。用户只需输入一行文字或一张图片，就能快速生成可用的3D模型。 以3D打印为例，Meshy-6将生成链路第一次做到了足够顺。一张照片上传，一分钟出基础模型，再过一分钟补完PBR贴图。整个链路已经不是只做演示的状态，更像一个可以接进后续工作流的工具。 2026年3月，拓竹科技把Meshy接进了MakerWorld的MakerLab——一张照片上传，两分钟后就能下载到一个可以直接切片打印的3MF文件。 这件事放在一年前还做不到，当时AI生成的3D模型精度过不了3D打印最现实的几道门槛。 过去一年，Meshy的ARR增长约12倍，目前ARR已达6000万美元。 过去两年内长期保持20%到30%的月环比增长。毛利85%，LTV/CAC大于4，一半以上的增长来自自然流量。 在多数AI公司仍难以跑通商业化的当下，Meshy以真实的营收持续巩固其在AI 3D领域的领先地位。 增长的动力来自B端和C端两端。
十一 | B端方面，全球市值与估值排名前十的科技公司中，已有一半成为Meshy的客户。
十二 | 客户与合作机构涵盖游戏领域的Nexon、网易游戏、三七互娱，3D打印领域的拓竹、创想三维、爱乐酷、闪铸、xTool，以及Hugo Boss、瑞典艺术与设计博物馆等全球知名品牌与文化机构。
十三 | C端的增长则主要来自3D打印和游戏两个垂直行业。
十四 | 3D打印本身正在走出小众——市场研究机构CONTEXT的数据显示，2025年四季度，2500美元以下的入门级机型出货量同比增长47%，收入增长53%。 而AI把生成的门槛进一步降低：早年用户想打印点什么，多半只能去社区里翻别人上传的现成模型；当AI把生成这件事做得越来越顺，愿意动手打印的人反而多了起来。
十五 | 03一场关于AI 3D生成的资本竞赛 Meshy所在的AI 3D生成赛道，正经历着一场前所未有的资本与技术的双重竞赛。
十六 | 2026年以来，头部玩家在短短数月内合计融资超过15亿美元。 国内方面，影眸科技（Hyper3D）是这条赛道上不可忽视的力量。这家成立于2020年的公司，核心团队来自上海科技大学。（延伸阅读→被黄仁勋“pick”的3D生成初创公司，完成数亿元新融资，海外收入占八成） 2026年6月，影眸完成新一轮数亿元融资，由凯辉基金、上海国投先导领投，老股东持续跟投。 影眸以3D生成大模型Rodin为引擎，定位于面向真实工业流程的高质量、可控、生产级3D资产生成。2026年1月发布Rodin Gen-2 Edit，整合了“3D生成”与“3D编辑”功能；6月发布Hyper3D Rodin Gen-2.5，这是全球首个具备千万面级生成能力的3D大模型，首次将类大语言模型的“先思考、再生成”运行逻辑引入3D生成领域。 影眸的客户包括字节跳动、Unity、Figma、Canva等企业，海外收入占总收入约80%。英伟达CEO黄仁勋在CES 2026展示机器人时所呈现的3D画面，其生成任务也由Hyper3D完成。
十七 | 另一家国内玩家VAST（三启万物），由前MiniMax联合创始人宋亚宸于2023年创立。（延伸阅读→97年文科生，两个月狂揽13亿）2026年7月，VAST完成超10亿元A3战略轮融资，投资方涵盖吉利资本、4399游戏、巨人网络、复星集团等产业方。 其核心产品Tripo Studio是一站式AI 3D资产生成工作台，用户可通过文本或图片在数秒至数分钟内生成可直接导入Unity、Unreal Engine等工业管线的生产级3D模型。旗舰模型Tripo P1.0能在约2秒内直接输出拓扑干净、布线合理、符合工业标准的清洁模型。 截至2026年中，Tripo平台已累计服务超650万全球创作者，生成3D资产接近1亿个，ARR达1200万美元，80%以上用户来自海外。 国际市场上，Luma AI是Meshy最直接的全球对手之一。 这家成立于2021年的美国公司，技术布局覆盖图像、3D与视频生成领域。2025年11月，Luma完成9亿美元C轮融资，由沙特公共投资基金旗下HUMAIN领投，AMD Ventures参投，估值约40亿美元。截至2026年初，Luma已累计融资超10亿美元，服务超过3000万注册用户。 Luma的实景3D捕捉（用手机拍一圈照片生成3D模型）和视频转3D功能是其独有优势。Luma近期将总部从硅谷迁至伦敦，目标在2026年底前覆盖欧洲12国制造业客户，拿下3D生成式AI市场25%的份额。 从融资节奏来看，这条赛道正在快速“收敛”——资本不再撒网式布局，而是集中押注头部玩家。 资本的热情背后是一个清晰的逻辑：3D被公认为多模态里最硬的一块，因为它要求一支团队同时掌握图形学和大模型训练两套能力。
十八 | 也正因为难，它更可能成为未来物理世界AI的一块基座。 AI 3D生成正在从“技术验证期”走向“商业化兑现期”。 但喧嚣之下，真正的考验才刚刚开始——当技术红利逐渐摊薄，产品能否真正嵌入产业工作流、能否持续产生健康的单位经济模型，才是决定谁能“留在牌桌上”的关键。 3D是物理世界的数字镜像，而AI正在以惊人的速度缩短镜像与现实之间的距离。这条赛道的故事远未结束，甚至才刚刚进入最精彩的部分。 本文为创业邦原创，未经授权不得转载，否则创业邦将保留向其追究法律责任的权利。如需转载或有任何疑问，请联系[email protected]。
