Shanghai Tech Tour: Where China's AI, Chips and Consumer Apps Meet
A Shanghai tech tour is the best way to see China’s AI model companies, chipmakers, electric-vehicle brands and the consumer platforms that shape how 1.4 billion people shop and spend their time. The city is home to Rednote, Bilibili, miHoYo, NIO, SAIC, COMAC, MiniMax and SMIC, spread across a handful of districts. This guide lists the companies headquartered in Shanghai, explains which ones receive visitors and gives a sample 3-day route.
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Plan a Shanghai Tech Tour With Us
A Shanghai Tech Tour Guide for Executives and Investors
Shanghai is where China’s tech industry meets its consumer market. In one city you can sit in on a briefing at an AI start-up, walk through a carmaker’s brand space and meet the teams behind the apps that decide what Chinese consumers buy. It is also China’s financial capital: the Shanghai Stock Exchange runs the STAR Market, the board created in 2019 for technology companies.
This guide is written for executives, investors and innovation teams planning a China tech tour that starts in Shanghai. Every company location below was checked against the company’s own website or stock-exchange filings, because several famous names are not where most lists say they are.
1. Which Tech Companies Are Headquartered in Shanghai?
The table lists technology companies whose headquarters, or main operating base, is in Shanghai. Where a company’s legal or executive office is elsewhere, we say so.
| Company | District | What they do | Visits (as publicly stated) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Rednote (Xiaohongshu) | Huangpu (Xintiandi area) | Lifestyle content community and social e-commerce app | No public visitor programme found |
 Bilibili | Yangpu | Video community for games, animation and creators | Headquarters not open to visitors |
 miHoYo | Xuhui (Caohejing) | Game developer behind Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail | No official visitor programme |
 Pinduoduo | Changning (operating base; PDD Holdings’ executive office is in Dublin) | E-commerce platform | No public visitor programme found |
 Trip.com Group (Ctrip) | Changning (main operating campus; executive office in Singapore) | Online travel platforms | No public visitor programme found |
 NIO | Minhang (global HQ; NIO China is based in Hefei) | Premium electric vehicles and battery swapping | NIO Houses are open to the public |
 SAIC Motor | Jing’an (head office) | China’s largest state-owned carmaker (MG, Roewe, IM) | Has offered industrial tourism at its Lingang plant |
 COMAC | Pudong (Expo area) | State-owned maker of the C919 airliner | Open days and a science camp that includes a C919 assembly visit |
 SenseTime | Xuhui (mainland China HQ; group head office in Hong Kong) | AI and computer vision | Hosts official delegations |
 MiniMax | Xuhui (Caohejing) | Foundation-model AI (Hailuo video, Talkie) | No public visitor programme found |
 AgiBot | Pudong (Kangqiao) | Humanoid and embodied-AI robots | Hosts delegations; its public experience centre is in Wuxi |
 Fourier | Pudong (Kangqiao) | Humanoid and rehabilitation robots | No public visitor programme found |
 SMIC | Pudong (Zhangjiang) | China’s largest contract chipmaker | No public visitor programme found |
Source: company websites, annual reports and stock-exchange filings, checked 23 October 2026. Visitor information is as publicly stated by each company; visits are arranged with each host and confirmed per programme.
Two other names often appear on Shanghai lists. Dewu (Poizon), the authenticated sneaker and fashion marketplace, is in Yangpu, and Lilith Games works from Xuhui. Some well-known companies are not headquartered in Shanghai, even if they have large offices there: Unitree and Leapmotor are in Hangzhou, Horizon Robotics in Beijing, Momenta in Suzhou and Pony.ai in Guangzhou.
2. Why Choose Shanghai for a Tech Tour?
Shanghai’s strength is breadth. It combines four kinds of technology that rarely sit in the same city:
- Consumer platforms: Rednote, Bilibili, Pinduoduo, Trip.com and Dewu run their businesses from Shanghai, which makes it the place to understand how Chinese consumers discover, compare and buy.
- AI and robotics: MiniMax, StepFun and SenseTime’s mainland headquarters in Xuhui, and humanoid-robot makers AgiBot and Fourier in Pudong.
- Hard tech: SMIC and Hua Hong in Zhangjiang make chips; COMAC builds the C919 airliner.
- Mobility: NIO’s global headquarters and SAIC, China’s largest state-owned carmaker. Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai is also in the Lingang area, although Tesla is an American company.
If your interest is mainly hardware and manufacturing, read our Shenzhen tech tour guide as well: the two cities complement each other.
3. Where Are Shanghai’s Tech Districts?
Shanghai is large, and a tech tour works best when the route follows the districts where companies cluster.
- Pudong, Zhangjiang: Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park is Shanghai’s semiconductor and biotech hub, home to SMIC and Hua Hong.
- Pudong, Kangqiao: AgiBot and Fourier sit a few minutes apart, which makes it easy to see two humanoid-robot makers in one morning.
- Pudong, Expo area: COMAC’s headquarters tower.
- Xuhui, Caohejing and West Bund: the city’s AI and gaming cluster, with miHoYo, MiniMax, Lilith Games, StepFun and SenseTime’s mainland headquarters.
- Changning: the operating bases of Pinduoduo and Trip.com Group.
- Huangpu and Yangpu: Rednote near Xintiandi; Bilibili and Dewu in Yangpu.
- Minhang and Lingang: NIO’s global headquarters in Minhang; Tesla’s Gigafactory and SAIC’s Lingang plant further south-east.
4. What Can You Actually See on a Shanghai Tech Tour?
Chinese companies are not open campuses. Most visits are arranged in advance through the company’s official channels or through an introduction, and they usually take one of these formats:
- Exhibition halls and brand spaces: NIO Houses are open to the public, and several companies run exhibition halls for invited groups.
- Briefings with the team: a presentation followed by questions with business-development, strategy or product managers.
- Industrial sites: COMAC runs open days and a science camp that includes a visit to the C919 final-assembly workshop; SAIC has offered industrial tourism at its Lingang plant.
- Ecosystem meetings: incubators, investors and founders who explain how the market works around the big names.
Some headquarters do not receive visitors at all; Bilibili, for example, says its office is not open without an employee badge. No organizer can promise a specific company in advance. Our guide to company visits in China explains how visits are requested and confirmed.
5. A Sample 3-Day Shanghai Tech Tour Itinerary
This is an example route. The companies on any real programme depend on your sector and on each host’s availability.
- Day 1, Pudong: Zhangjiang for semiconductors and biotech in the morning; Kangqiao for humanoid robotics in the afternoon; dinner with local founders or investors.
- Day 2, Xuhui and West Bund: AI model companies and the gaming cluster in Caohejing; an evening briefing on China’s AI regulation and talent market.
- Day 3, consumer platforms and mobility: a session on how Chinese consumers use Rednote and Bilibili, a visit to a NIO House, and time to debrief before departure.
- Optional Day 4, Hangzhou: about an hour by high-speed rail to see Alibaba, DeepSeek and Unitree, which are headquartered there.
6. Shanghai or Shenzhen: Which Is Better for a Tech Tour?
Many groups ask which city to choose. The short answer: Shanghai for platforms, AI and the consumer market; Shenzhen for hardware and the supply chain. Many programmes combine both.
| Shanghai | Shenzhen | |
|---|---|---|
| Strongest sectors | AI models, semiconductors, EVs, civil aviation, consumer platforms, gaming | Hardware and electronics, drones, telecom, EVs and batteries, robotics, genomics |
| What a visit feels like | Corporate headquarters, R&D campuses and brand spaces | Exhibition halls, labs, factory floors and the electronics supply chain |
| Best for | Market entry, consumer and platform strategy, AI | Product, hardware, supply chain and manufacturing |
| Easy add-on | Hangzhou by high-speed rail (Alibaba, DeepSeek, Unitree) | Hong Kong, Guangzhou (XPeng, EHang) and Dongguan (OPPO, vivo) |
Source: InfluChina, based on 25+ expeditions delivered; company locations from company filings, October 2026.
7. How to Plan a Shanghai Tech Tour
- Visas: many nationalities can now enter China visa-free for short stays. Check the current list before you book; our China business trip guide covers visas, payments and apps.
- Lead time: allow several weeks to request company visits, more for large groups.
- Interpreters: most briefings are in Chinese, so plan professional interpretation for every meeting.
- Group size: smaller groups get more interaction with hosts; large groups are often limited to exhibition halls.
8. Organizing a Shanghai Tech Tour With InfluChina
InfluChina organizes bespoke China business tours for leadership teams, investors and business schools. We build the route around your objective, request the company visits, brief each host, provide interpreters and handle hotels and transfers. Because we are also a China marketing agency, we can add sessions on how Chinese consumers use platforms such as Rednote, Douyin and Tmall.
Investors can start with our China tech tours for investors; corporate teams with our corporate delegations. For a wider overview, read our China tech tour guide.
Start Planning Your Shanghai Tech Tour
Shanghai rewards a focused route: pick the clusters that match your objective, request visits early and leave room for the conversations that happen after the formal meetings. Tell us who is travelling and what the trip has to decide, and we will come back with a proposed route.
