World's first large-scale robot theme park debuts in China with hundreds of humanoid machines
China has opened the doors to a robot theme park with humanoid machines that can walk, talk, dance, and even challenge you to a game of ping-pong.
The world’s first large-scale embodied intelligence theme park has debuted at the Hengqin Chimelong resort in Guangdong, with more than 300 humanoid robots now working alongside human visitors
From robot tour guides to machines showing off their sporting skills, the park is turning a futuristic robotics showcase into a full-blown day out.
And judging by some of the opening-day stunts, the robots are not exactly arriving quietly.
Hundreds of robots have taken over the robot theme park in China
The futuristic new attraction officially opened on September 24 at Chimelong Spaceship in Hengqin, transforming parts of the ocean-themed resort into a huge playground for humanoid robots.
More than 300 robots are currently deployed across the park, with more than 100 interactive experiences available for visitors.
The robots are made primarily by Chinese robotics company AGIBOT and have been given jobs ranging from tour guide and shopping assistant to entertainer, science educator and hotel receptionist.
Visitors can ask robots for directions, get help planning a route through the park and take part in interactive games.
Some can even compete against guests in activities such as ping-pong, while others perform dances, martial arts routines, and other demonstrations.
And the opening ceremony itself was suitably dramatic, with robots appearing to fly through the air as part of the launch.
Footage from the opening showed one of the machines being brought into the park by drone, while Chinese state-linked reporting said AGIBOT’s 20,000th robot was also involved in the celebrations.
You can actually compete against the robots
This isn’t designed to be the kind of attraction where visitors simply stand behind a rope and watch robots move around.
The park has been built around human-robot interaction, with visitors able to control machines, challenge them in games and get up close with robots that have been designed to communicate with them.
There are also dedicated science and education experiences, where robots can teach children about marine life through questions, games and interactive challenges.
That fits particularly well with the existing Chimelong Spaceship attraction, which is centered around marine science and has enormous aquariums and animal exhibits.
Officials in China say the park includes six or seven core areas depending on how the experiences are categorized, covering entertainment, science education, guided tours, companionship, retail and hotel services.
The robot fleet could get much bigger
Perhaps the most interesting part is that this is not simply a flashy opening-week experiment.
AGIBOT and Chimelong have established the park as a real-world testing ground for embodied AI, allowing robots to interact with large numbers of people in unpredictable situations.
That is particularly valuable for developers because a robot theme park provides something a lab cannot easily replicate: thousands of real visitors doing thousands of different things, particularly children.
Safety is also a major consideration, especially because children can get extremely close to the machines.
The park currently requires roughly one human operator for every three robots, although the goal is to eventually reduce that to one operator for every ten robots, and allegedly the fleet could soon become much larger.
AGIBOT has said it plans to increase the number of robots at the park to more than 1,000 by the end of 2026, meaning this could eventually feel like a city where the robots happen to be working everywhere.
For now, though, visitors in China can experience what could be an early glimpse of that future – complete with robot tour guides, robotic performers, and the slightly terrifying prospect of being humiliated at ping-pong by a machine.