© 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry. To alleviate the capacity degradation of conventional anode materials caused by serious volume expansion and particle aggregation for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), considerable attention has been devoted to the rational design and synthesis of novel anode architectures. Herein, we report an effective fabrication strategy to implant well-distributed carbide nanoparticles into spherical porous carbon frameworks to form pitaya-like microspheres. Benefiting from their unique components and architecture features, the as-synthesized pitaya-like microspheres can effectively buffer the volume change and prevent aggregation of Co3ZnC nanoparticles during the charge/discharge processes of LIBs. The porous carbon framework provides an unhindered pathway for electron transport and Li+ diffusion and restricts the thin solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer to the outer surface of carbon outer-shells. In LIBs, the anodes deliver a high capacity of 608 mA h g-1 at 100 mA g-1 after 300 charge/discharge cycles and ultrahigh cyclic stability and rate performance with a capacity of 423 mA h g-1 even after 1150 consecutive cycles at 1000 mA g-1.