China AI Tour: Which AI Companies You Can Actually Visit, and How to Plan It
A China AI tour is a business trip built around China’s artificial intelligence industry: foundation-model companies, AI-agent start-ups, humanoid-robot makers and the platforms that put AI in front of hundreds of millions of users. Most of it sits in four cities: Beijing for models and chips, Hangzhou for Alibaba and its start-ups, Shanghai for model companies and humanoid robots, and Shenzhen for hardware. This guide shows which companies receive visitors and which do not, how to choose the cities, when to go and a sample 5-day route, based on our own October 2026 tech and AI expedition.
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What Is a China AI Tour?
A China AI tour is a short, structured programme, usually three to seven days, of briefings, exhibition-hall visits and meetings with Chinese AI companies, start-ups and the businesses that use their technology. It is built for executives, investors and business-school groups who need to understand how China builds and deploys AI.
There is a lot to see. China counted more than 6,200 AI companies in 2025, and its core AI industry passed RMB 1.2 trillion, according to estimates cited by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. By 31 August 2026, 1,112 generative AI services had completed filing with the Cyberspace Administration of China. Interest from abroad has grown with it: Rest of World and Reuters have both reported on founders, investors and executives booking tours of China’s AI, robotics and EV companies. The catch is that some of the most famous names do not receive visitors at all.
This guide is written from experience. In October 2026 our tech and AI expedition spent two days in Hangzhou and two in Shenzhen, with visits to Alibaba, the AI-agent company Intelligence Indeed, the embodied-AI start-up INFIFORCE, UBTech’s humanoid robot hall and Baidu’s Shenzhen offices. Every company location below was checked against the company’s own website or stock-exchange filings.
1. Which Chinese AI Companies Can You Visit?
The table lists the Chinese AI companies that groups ask about most, where each one is headquartered and what it publicly says about visits. “No public visitor programme found” does not mean a visit is impossible; it means a visit depends on an introduction and on the company’s own approval.
| Company | City (district) | AI focus | Visits (as publicly stated) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Baidu | Beijing (Haidian; Apollo Park in Yizhuang) | ERNIE models, AI cloud and Apollo Go robotaxis | Apollo Park receives groups by appointment; InfluChina groups have met Baidu in Shenzhen |
 ByteDance | Beijing (Haidian) | Doubao assistant, Seed models and Volcano Engine cloud | No public visitor programme found |
 Zhipu AI (Z.ai) | Beijing (Haidian, Zhongguancun) | GLM models and AI agents; listed in Hong Kong | No public visitor programme found |
 Moonshot AI (Kimi) | Beijing (Haidian) | Kimi assistant and K-series open-weight models | No public visitor programme found |
 Kuaishou (Kling AI) | Beijing (Haidian) | Kling video-generation model | No public visitor programme found |
 Xiaomi | Beijing (Haidian; EV factory in Yizhuang) | MiMo models, devices and EVs | EV factory tours booked in the Xiaomi Auto app |
 Cambricon | Beijing (Haidian) | AI accelerator chips | No public visitor programme found |
| Horizon Robotics | Beijing (Haidian) | AI chips for driver assistance | No public visitor programme found |
| Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center | Beijing (Yizhuang) | Tiangong open humanoid-robot platform | Exhibition hall that receives delegations |
 Alibaba (Qwen) | Hangzhou (Xixi campus, Yuhang; Alibaba Cloud in Xihu) | Qwen open-weight models and cloud | Visitor centre at the Xixi campus; visited by InfluChina groups |
 DeepSeek | Hangzhou (Gongshu) | Open-weight frontier models (V and R series) | Does not receive visitors |
 Unitree Robotics | Hangzhou (Binjiang) | Quadruped and humanoid robots | Showroom by invitation only; the company says it sells no visits |
| Intelligence Indeed | Hangzhou (Yuhang, AI Town) | Enterprise AI agents and automation | Visited by InfluChina groups |
 INFIFORCE | Hangzhou (Yuhang) | Embodied-AI robot brain and robots | Visited by InfluChina groups |
 BrainCo | Hangzhou (Yuhang, AI Town) | Brain-computer interfaces and bionic hands | Demonstration centre that receives delegations |
 Deep Robotics | Hangzhou (Xihu) | Quadruped robots for industry | No public visitor programme found |
 iFlytek | Hefei (High-tech Zone) | Speech AI and the Spark model | AI experience hall that receives visitors |
 MiniMax | Shanghai (Xuhui) | Foundation models and Hailuo video | No public visitor programme found |
 StepFun | Shanghai (Xuhui, West Bund) | Multimodal foundation models | No public visitor programme found |
 SenseTime | Shanghai (Xuhui; group head office in Hong Kong) | Computer vision and SenseNova models | Hosts official delegations |
 AgiBot | Shanghai (Pudong) | Humanoid and embodied-AI robots | Hosts delegations at its headquarters |
 Tencent | Shenzhen (Nanshan) | Hunyuan models, WeChat and cloud | Corporate exhibition hall, by appointment |
 Huawei | Shenzhen (Longgang) | Ascend AI chips and Pangu models | Exhibition halls, by invitation only |
 UBTech Robotics | Shenzhen (Nanshan) | Humanoid and service robots | Exhibition hall, visited by InfluChina groups |
 XPeng | Guangzhou (Tianhe) | AI driving, humanoid robots and flying cars | Public AI manufacturing tour and headquarters showrooms |
 WeRide | Guangzhou (Huangpu) | Robotaxis and robobuses | Public robotaxi rides booked in its app |
 Pony.ai | Guangzhou (Nansha) | Robotaxis and autonomous trucks | Robotaxi rides; has hosted chamber tours |
Source: company websites, annual reports and stock-exchange filings, Beijing municipal visitor guide (June 2026) and Xinhua, checked 26 October 2026; InfluChina groups for the visits marked as ours. Visits are arranged with each host and confirmed per programme.
Can you visit DeepSeek? No. DeepSeek, the Hangzhou company behind the DeepSeek models, does not run visits, and when El País went to its building in 2025, security staff told visitors that nobody was allowed in. Be wary of any programme that lists DeepSeek as a company visit.
2. Which City Is Best for a China AI Tour?
Each of China’s AI hubs shows a different part of the industry. Choose the cities by the question your group needs to answer, not by the most famous names.
| Beijing | Hangzhou | Shanghai | Shenzhen | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI strengths | Foundation models, AI chips, research institutes | Cloud and open-weight models, AI agents, robots | Model start-ups, humanoid robots, the WAIC conference | AI hardware, robotics and the electronics supply chain |
| Names to know | Baidu, ByteDance, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, Cambricon | Alibaba (Qwen), Unitree, BrainCo, INFIFORCE, Intelligence Indeed | MiniMax, StepFun, SenseTime, AgiBot, Fourier | Tencent, Huawei, UBTech, DJI, Dobot |
| Easiest visits | Apollo Park, Xiaomi EV factory, Robot World (all in Yizhuang) | Alibaba campus, AI Town companies | AgiBot in Kangqiao, Pudong; SenseTime for official delegations | Exhibition halls (Tencent, UBTech), DJI’s flagship store |
| Best for | Model and chip strategy, policy | AI applications, agents, embodied AI | Model companies plus robots in one stop | Hardware, robotics, sourcing |
Source: InfluChina, based on 25+ expeditions delivered; company locations from company filings, October 2026.
For a first China AI tour, Hangzhou plus Shanghai or Shenzhen covers models, agents, robots and hardware in five days. Add Beijing when the focus is foundation models, chips or research.
3. Beijing: Foundation Models, AI Chips and Research
Beijing is where most of China’s foundation-model companies and AI chip designers sit, and most of them are in one district: Haidian, around Zhongguancun. Zhipu AI, now listed in Hong Kong under the name Z.ai, shares an office yard on Zhongguancun East Road with Baichuan, which has turned to medical AI. Moonshot AI, the company behind the Kimi assistant, and the chip designer Cambricon are both on Zhichun Road. ByteDance’s main campus, home of the Doubao assistant, is also in Haidian, as are Kuaishou, maker of the Kling video model, and Xiaomi.
The second cluster is Beijing E-Town (Yizhuang), in the south-east. This is where visits are easiest to arrange. According to the Beijing municipal visitor guide, Baidu’s Apollo Park receives groups by appointment, the Xiaomi EV factory releases tour places through the Xiaomi Auto app (foreign visitors may need help from a Chinese ID holder and must bring their passport), and Robot World, a public robot exhibition, is booked through a WeChat mini-program. The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, which develops the open Tiangong humanoid platform, has an exhibition hall in the same area.
Beijing also hosts two dates worth planning around: the Zhongguancun Forum in late March and the World Robot Conference in August.
4. Hangzhou: Alibaba, the Six Little Dragons and AI Agents
Hangzhou is Alibaba’s home and the most compact AI cluster in China. Alibaba’s Xixi campus in Yuhang district has a visitor centre, and Alibaba Cloud, which trains the Qwen open-weight models, has its global headquarters in Xihu district. A short drive away, AI Town in Yuhang houses the AI-agent company Intelligence Indeed and BrainCo, a brain-computer-interface company with a demonstration centre that receives delegations. INFIFORCE, an embodied-AI start-up founded by a former Alibaba vice president, works from Alibaba’s Digital Ecosystem Innovation Park.
Since early 2025 the city has been known for its “Six Little Dragons”, including DeepSeek, Unitree, Deep Robotics, BrainCo and Manycore. Two caveats before you plan around them. DeepSeek does not receive visitors. Unitree, in Binjiang district, shows its new showroom only by invitation, and a notice in its lobby says it offers no paid visits, so any agency selling a “Unitree visit” is not selling something the company has agreed to. Game Science, the sixth name, is actually headquartered in Shenzhen; only its studio for the game Black Myth: Wukong is in Hangzhou.
Alibaba Cloud’s Apsara Conference, its main AI event of the year, takes place in Hangzhou every September.
5. Shanghai: Model Start-ups, Humanoid Robots and WAIC
Shanghai combines model start-ups with humanoid robots. MiniMax, maker of the Hailuo video model, works from Xuhui district, StepFun from the West Bund, and SenseTime has its mainland China headquarters in Xuhui. In Kangqiao, Pudong, the humanoid-robot makers AgiBot and Fourier are a few minutes apart, and AgiBot receives delegations at its headquarters; Reuters photographed a tour for foreign investors there in April 2026.
Shanghai also hosts the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), China’s largest AI event, every July. For the full list of tech companies in the city, read our Shanghai tech tour guide.
6. Shenzhen: Where AI Becomes Hardware
Shenzhen is where AI becomes a product. Tencent, which builds the Hunyuan models, receives visitors at the exhibition hall in its Binhai Towers by appointment; Huawei, maker of the Ascend AI chips, shows invited groups around the exhibition halls at its Bantian base. UBTech, one of China’s best-known humanoid-robot makers, has an exhibition hall in Nanshan that our groups have visited, and Dobot, which makes collaborative robot arms and humanoids, has one too.
What makes Shenzhen different is the supply chain behind the robots and devices: component markets, contract manufacturers and hardware start-ups within a short drive. The China Hi-Tech Fair takes place here every November. Our Shenzhen tech tour guide lists every tech company headquartered in the city.
7. Hefei and Guangzhou: Speech AI and Robotaxis
Two more cities are worth adding for specific interests. Hefei, within easy reach of Shanghai by high-speed rail, is home to iFlytek, China’s best-known speech-AI company, which runs an AI experience hall for visitors. Guangzhou, under an hour from Shenzhen by train, is China’s robotaxi city: WeRide offers public robotaxi rides booked through its app, Pony.ai has hosted chamber of commerce tours, and XPeng runs a public AI manufacturing tour and showrooms at its new headquarters, including its flying-car unit.
8. What We Saw on Our Latest China AI Tour
In October 2026 our tech and AI expedition spent two days in Hangzhou and two in Shenzhen. This is what the group actually did, stop by stop.
- Intelligence Indeed, Hangzhou: a session with the team of an enterprise AI-agent company in AI Town, whose agents operate business software the way a person would.
- Alibaba, Hangzhou: the Xixi campus and a stop at the Qwen Work space.
- INFIFORCE, Hangzhou: a briefing at the embodied-AI start-up and a teleoperation demo, in which an engineer guides a robot arm remotely so the robot can learn the task.
- UBTech, Shenzhen: the humanoid robot exhibition hall, including the Walker series.
- Baidu, Shenzhen: a meeting with hosts at Baidu International Building, Baidu’s base in Shenzhen.
9. When to Go: AI Events Worth Planning Around
Timing a China AI tour around a major event adds a day of exhibitions and announcements to the company visits. The catch: hotels fill up and companies are busier, so book early.
| Event | City | 2026 edition | Next edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhongguancun Forum | Beijing | 25–29 March | Usually late March |
| BAAI Conference | Beijing | 12–13 June | Usually June |
| World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) | Shanghai | 17–20 July | Usually July |
| World Robot Conference | Beijing (Yizhuang) | 19–23 August | Opens 18 August 2027 |
| World Humanoid Robot Games | Beijing | 22–26 August | August 2027 |
| Apsara Conference (Alibaba Cloud) | Hangzhou | 22–24 September | Usually September |
| World Internet Conference | Wuzhen (Zhejiang) | 2–5 November | Usually November |
| China Hi-Tech Fair | Shenzhen | 26–28 November | Usually November |
Source: official organisers, Xinhua and the Beijing municipal government, checked 26 October 2026.
10. A Sample 5-Day China AI Tour Itinerary
This route follows the order of our own October 2026 expedition and adds Shanghai. The companies on a real programme depend on your questions and on each host’s availability.
| Day | City | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hangzhou | Alibaba’s campus and a briefing on China’s cloud and open-weight models; an enterprise AI-agent company in AI Town |
| 2 | Hangzhou | Embodied AI and robotics in Yuhang and Binjiang; evening high-speed train to Shanghai (about an hour) |
| 3 | Shanghai | Model companies in Xuhui; humanoid robots in Kangqiao, Pudong |
| 4 | Shenzhen | Flight to Shenzhen; Tencent’s exhibition hall and UBTech’s humanoid robot hall |
| 5 | Shenzhen | The AI hardware supply chain: component markets and hardware start-ups; group debrief |
| +2 | Beijing (optional) | Model companies and chip designers in Haidian; Apollo Park, the Xiaomi EV factory and humanoid-robot centres in Yizhuang |
Source: InfluChina sample route, October 2026.
11. China AI Tour or China Tech Tour: What Is the Difference?
A China AI tour focuses on artificial intelligence: foundation models, AI agents, embodied AI and humanoid robots, AI chips and the companies deploying them. A China tech tour is broader and usually adds electric vehicles, batteries, e-commerce and consumer platforms. If the group needs both, start with the AI companies and add a city from our Shenzhen tech tour or Shanghai tech tour guides. Venture investors will find the format they need in our China investor tours.
12. How to Plan a China AI Tour
- Visas: ordinary-passport holders from 50 countries can currently enter China visa-free for up to 30 days for business, under a policy valid until 31 December 2026. Many other nationalities, including US citizens, can use the 240-hour visa-free transit when travelling on to a third country. Check the rules for your passport before you book; our China business trip guide covers visas, payments and apps.
- Lead time: allow several weeks to request company visits, and more if your dates fall near WAIC or the World Robot Conference.
- Passports and bookings: public programmes such as the Xiaomi EV factory and Robot World use real-name booking, so bring the original passport you booked with.
- Photos: many labs and production areas do not allow photography. Ask before you take your phone out.
- Interpreters: many briefings are in Chinese, so plan professional interpretation for every meeting.
- Connectivity: many Western apps and AI tools do not work on mainland Chinese networks. Sort out your connection before you land.
Choosing who organizes the trip matters as much as the route; our comparison of China business tour organizers lists the questions to ask any of them.
13. Organizing a China AI Tour With InfluChina
InfluChina organizes bespoke China business tours for leadership teams, investors and business schools. For a China AI tour we build the route around your questions, request the company visits, brief each host on who is coming, provide interpreters and handle hotels, trains and transfers. Because we are also a China marketing agency, we can add sessions on how Chinese consumers and brands already use AI on platforms such as Douyin, Rednote and Tmall.
Investors can start with our China investor tours, business schools with our business school study tours and corporate teams with our corporate delegations. To see what China’s AI platforms mean for your brand’s visibility, read our guide to GEO in China.
Start Planning Your China AI Tour
The best China AI tours are honest about access: they mix companies that really receive groups with the start-ups, investors and users around them, and they leave time to talk about what the group has seen. Tell us who is travelling and what the trip has to decide, and we will come back with a proposed route.
