China Debuts First Large-Scale AI Robot Theme Park
A large-scale theme park staffed by hundreds of humanoid robots opened its gates in Hengqin, Zhuhai, on September 24, 2026, in what its backers bill as the world’s first attraction of its kind and a milestone for China’s push to commercialize artificial intelligence in daily life.
The park, a partnership between attractions operator Chimelong Group (长隆集团) and humanoid-robot maker AgiBot (智元 / AGIBOT), deploys more than 300 robots across over 100 interaction points and seven core scenarios at the Chimelong Spaceship Park, according to ITHome. The robots are cast not as static exhibits but as park companions — performing, guiding visitors, teaching, and even delivering supplies.
A ‘Companion’ Rather Than an Exhibit
According to Xinhua News, the robots cover six scenarios: performance and entertainment, AI science popularization, smart guidance, study-travel education, smart companion tours, and hotel reception. ITHome and other outlets list seven, adding retail and sports.
“The robots are no longer limited to fixed-program performances; they can autonomously perceive and perform light-and-shadow dances, conduct science interactions, and also handle park guiding and material delivery — transforming from exhibits into companions that can accompany and interact with visitors,” Xinhua reported.
Opening-day festivities included what organizers called the world’s largest-scale regular human-robot co-performance opening dance, with AgiBot’s Expedition A3 (远征A3) and Lingxi X2 (灵犀X2) models dancing alongside human performers, as well as a debut robot “flying trapeze” aerial performance.
The day also saw the delivery of AgiBot’s 20,000th complete unit — an Expedition A3 Ultra — to Chimelong, the unveiling of a joint research institute for embodied-intelligence cultural tourism, and the signing of a 10-year strategic cooperation agreement. AgiBot, Chimelong, and China Mobile jointly released what they described as a world-first large-scale 5G-A application for cultural-tourism scenarios.
Two Industries Seeking New Ground
The venue itself is notable: the Chimelong Spaceship Park is the world’s largest indoor theme park, home to more than 400 species and nearly 150,000 marine animals and holder of seven Guinness World Records, according to People’s Daily.
Yangcheng Evening News framed the partnership as a collision of two of Guangdong province’s advantage industries — manufacturing-heavy robotics and a vast cultural-tourism market. The deal was first signed on August 23, 2026, when the two companies announced plans to co-build the attraction along with a joint laboratory, robot service hotels, robot circus performances, and machine-animal interaction projects.
“As robots enter theme parks, cultural-tourism consumption is becoming a new scenario for the commercialization of embodied intelligence,” wrote Yangcheng Evening News reporter Fu Beibei.
Unlike industrial settings, theme parks demand constantly refreshed content — a natural fit, the paper argued, for programmable, interactive, and iterable robots that can turn once-static attractions into upgradable intelligent experiences. “Embodied intelligence’s next stop is not only in factories — it may be right beside tourists,” the outlet wrote.
Scale Discrepancy and Skepticism
Not all coverage agrees on scale. Xinhua reported the park deploys “nearly 1,000” (近千台) embodied-intelligence robots park-wide, while ITHome and most financial outlets cite “more than 300.” The gap may reflect a distinction between total robots on site and interactive AgiBot units, or a broader count including non-AgiBot machines.
Some commentators question whether theme-park performance validates genuine productivity. A widely read visitor guide on the platform SMZDM noted the debate: “Robots no one wants in factories go dance in amusement parks.” The counter-argument holds that factories validate capability stability, while parks validate the “lower bound” — how robots handle unpredictable, off-script visitor questions.
That analysis also invoked the sci-fi series Westworld, drawing a parallel between AgiBot’s robots and the show’s “hosts,” with names, personalities, and daily looping scripts — “but memory and free will are still far off.”
The guide flagged a key test: whether the 300-plus robots remain in regular service after three months, or are withdrawn once the novelty fades, as has happened with many prior “robots enter scenic areas” projects. It also surfaced a longer-running controversy, noting that Chimelong has faced boycott campaigns from animal-welfare advocates over captive cetaceans, with some users remarking on the irony of robots dancing outside the orca exhibit.
A Capital Story, Too
AgiBot is reportedly in a pre-IPO phase with a valuation around 40 billion RMB, needing flagship real-world deployments to support its capital narrative. Its 2025 shipments reportedly exceeded 5,100 units, with revenue projected to top 1 billion RMB.
Company figures such as CEO Deng Taihua (邓泰华) have positioned the park amid a broader commercial push. The timing was striking: a day before the opening, Elon Musk predicted in a CCTV Finance interview that humanoid robots would reach at least 1 billion units within 10 years.
What to Watch
Several open questions remain. The number of robots on site is disputed; the scenario count varies by outlet; and the financial terms of the Chimelong–AgiBot partnership and 10-year agreement have not been disclosed. AgiBot’s Hong Kong IPO timing and valuation also remain unconfirmed.
For now, the park stands as a real — if carefully staged — test of whether embodied intelligence can move from the factory floor to the visitors’ side, and whether that move endures beyond the opening-day spotlight.
Adult tickets during the opening period are priced at 240 RMB, with senior tickets at 180 RMB; the park is reachable by a roughly one-hour high-speed rail trip from Guangzhou South to Zhuhai Chimelong station.