A group of foreign writers and publishers visited electric vehicle maker Xpeng in Guangzhou and the China Spallation Neutron Source in Dongguan, Guangdong, on August 31.
At Xpeng, the visitors saw the "Land Aircraft Carrier," a car that can carry an aircraft. The vehicles are waiting for government approval. Lucy Caldwell, an Irish novelist, said she found the legal questions more interesting than the technology itself.
"I think this must be a whole new area of legislation," she said, "and working out where the passageways in the sky are, the roads in the sky that the cars will fly on."
She was also struck by the robots. She saw a humanoid model about to enter mass production and found herself referring to it as "her."
"It's very hard not to see the robot as a 'her' and as a being, as a consciousness," she said, adding that the 21st century would force philosophers to ask new questions about where humans draw the line between living and nonliving things.
The writers also visited the China Spallation Neutron Source. The facility, often described as a "super microscope," uses neutrons to study the inside of materials. It sits next to a lychee orchard.
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, a Kenyan writer, said China appeared to be moving ahead of the rest of the world. "It seems that China is living in a different dimension to the rest of humanity," she said. "The future has already unfolded in China."
She said she would take a message back to Kenya. She wanted her country to invest more in research after having seen what could be achieved. She said she would consider writing a story set at the neutron source, focusing on the beginning, the moment when scientists had nothing but an idea. Such a story, she said, could inspire people anywhere.
The tour was part of a new program by the 2026 Southern China Book Fair. The group had earlier visited BYD and DJI in Shenzhen, as organizers replaced conference-room talks with factory-floor visits. This approach gave writers a chance to form their own impressions and share them with the world.
Author | Feng Huiting
Video & Poster | Qin Shaolong
