WUHAN, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Riding the wave of China's flourishing "experience economy," visitors in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, are enjoying a host of new, interactive experiences, while playing with humanoid robots.
At the Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, pupils from a primary school are playing the classic children's game "Red Light, Green Light," their laughter ringing through the room.
Unlike previous generations, their playmate isn't another child, but a robot. After the robot issues a command, the children race forward; when the robot's arm stops moving, they instantly "freeze" in place.
Notably, their playground is also special. It is the Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, a place dedicated to "cultivating and training new robots."
Here, visitors can do more than just observing the practical uses of humanoid robots. They can also play games with them and experience firsthand how data is collected and actions are trained.
Launched in June 2025, The Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Center is now the one of China's largest robot innovation centers in terms of area and application scenarios.
It is based in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone, also known as the Optics Valley of China, where visitors can gain close experience and deeper insights into the city's rapidly growing high-tech cluster thanks to its increasingly popular tech-driven tourism.
The center has four sections dedicated to robot action training, data collection, application practice, and talent cultivation, respectively.
It is designed to facilitate the full chain of robot innovation from technology cultivation to industrial implementation, with four major functions -- proof of concept, pilot testing services, data integration, and scenario validation.
To train the humanoid robots, the center makes them "immerse" in real-world application scenarios. For instance, the data collection section provides simulated home scenes such as kitchen, bathroom, living room, as well as milk tea shop, pharmacy, restaurant, warehouse, and beyond.
In another experience zone, there are no physical humanoid robots. Instead, trainers wear VR headsets to conduct remote control training for the robots.
Here, visitors can experience robot-training with VR equipment. For instance, while they are reaching out to gently pick a rose and placing it into a vase, a blue "virtual hand" appears before the eyes, synchronously following the human hand's movements to conduct the same action. This customized VR equipment can capture human hand motion trajectories in real time, allowing the system to continuously enhance its intelligent interaction capabilities via simulated learning.
"Now, the robots are still in their learning phase. Through remote control by human operators, they can learn the hand movements people use in doing housework. Once sufficient data are collected, they are prospective to enter and serve households in the future," said Hu Longdan, a staff member at the center.
Just a 20-minute drive from the humanoid robot center, a modern smart factory welcomes visitors as well. Here, tourists can "encounter" robots hard at work on the factory floor.
In this factory for Xiaomi smart home appliances, there is one air conditioner rolling off the production line in every 6.5 seconds. Seven unmanned transport lines connect the factory floor, enabling efficient goods logistics.
As the tourist shuttle entered the injection-molding plant, what comes into the visitors' eyes is the production line operating with disciplined rhythm and efficient precision. Visitors can watch how a smart factory works in full automation: the intelligent driverless vehicles are moving in order, robots are transferring goods to the unmanned vehicles, which then convey the cargo along dedicated tracks to a 24-meter-high automated warehouse.
Now, this smart factory has become a popular tourist destination in Wuhan, with increasing numbers of visitors flooding to experience and explore. In May, the factory received a record number of 3,485 visitors, a 31 percent month-on-month increases.
Amid the nationwide wave of tech-innovation and experience economy, the Optics Valley of China has launched three tech-tourism themed routes -- super factories, artificial intelligence, and low-altitude cultural tourism, enabling visitors to experience, interact and gain their insights into the hardcore-techs, which used to be far away from the public and kept "mysterious" in labs and plants.
Data shows that, from this March to June, tech-experience tourism sites of the Optics Valley of China have received around 480,000 visitors, with estimated revenue exceeding 11 million yuan (about 1.6 million U.S. dollars). ■
