Key Insights from Our China Innovation Trip 2026

(written by Sascha Kurfiss, delegation lead)

Side note: Our online China Update with Sascha Kurfiss takes place on June 9, 2026 at 5 PM.Register here

One week in China.

Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou.

Together with a group of entrepreneurs, decision-makers and innovation enthusiasts, we traveled through China once again to explore one simple question:

How is China really innovating today?

Not from a distance.
Not through LinkedIn debates or geopolitical headlines.
But directly on site — inside companies, laboratories, robotics factories, shopping malls, startup hubs and in conversations with Chinese entrepreneurs, researchers and institutions.

And as after every trip to China, one feeling remains above all: Europe massively underestimates how quickly entire industries are changing there right now.

Beijing: Platforms, AI and the digital ecosystem

Even entering the country sets the tone for the trip. Scan a QR code and a few minutes later we are outside the airport. At the same time, Beijing feels completely different today compared to just a few years ago: significantly cleaner, more digital and more organized.

After an initial culture day, which for us begins with a small masterclass on old and new China, one thing quickly becomes clear: in China, “big” often simply means even bigger — and “long term” is usually thought even further ahead. Of course, we visit the Great Wall at Mutianyu, walk through the old hutongs around the Imperial Palace, stroll across Tiananmen Square and gain a feeling for how deeply history, power and identity are still intertwined here today.

Even culinary clichés are quickly disproven. Chinese food tastes significantly better on site than its reputation in Europe suggests.

Especially in the famous Haidilao hotpot restaurant, tradition and technology merge in an almost absurd way: while people dance at the tables, sing karaoke and prepare noodles in a performative way, robots are already taking over parts of the service elsewhere.

Our first company visit takes us to Kuaishou — one of China’s largest tech companies and a direct competitor to TikTok. More than 30,000 employees work there on topics such as social commerce, livestreaming and AI-generated content production.

Remarkably, Kuaishou has developed one of the most exciting Chinese GenAI models for video generation with Kling AI. People there already openly discuss how AI could automate livestreaming in the future — including virtual hosts and AI-generated sales streams.

What still sounds like the distant future in Europe is already being operationally planned here.

But the real difference goes deeper: in China, content, commerce and payment have long merged into a single ecosystem. Creators sell directly within the stream itself. Entertainment, distribution and conversion happen simultaneously.

While Western platforms still tend to separate these worlds, the Chinese model feels far more integrated.

Relationships as Infrastructure

In the afternoon, we attend an official reception hosted by the Chinese Friendship Association — inside a historic building once owned by a former general in the middle of Beijing.

And once again, something becomes very clear there that many Western companies still underestimate in China:

Technology alone is not enough. Relationships remain central.

Guanxi is not just a networking term. It describes trust, long-term relationships and personal connections. In many conversations, it became clear: anyone who wants to work sustainably in China needs patience, cultural understanding and a real presence on the ground.

Zhongguancun: The Chinese Startup Model

Later, we visit Zhongguancun Internet Park — part of Beijing’s innovation ecosystem that is often referred to as the Chinese Silicon Valley.

The history of this location reveals a lot about China’s innovation model. As early as the 1980s, the first technology companies began settling around elite universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University. What started with small electronics markets and research clusters evolved over decades into one of China’s most important innovation hubs — now home to companies such as Lenovo, Baidu and numerous AI and robotics startups.

On site, we gain insights into the local startup ecosystem, see prototypes, robotics projects and AI applications. One thing stands out compared to the West: many Chinese startups think extremely fast in terms of scaling and industrialization.

And one more thing becomes clear:

China often organizes innovation in highly specialized micro-ecosystems. Sometimes for robotics, sometimes for electric vehicles, sometimes for manufacturing or AI. The closer companies, talent, suppliers and research institutions physically move together, the faster innovation emerges.

Fewer pitch decks.
More execution.

We encounter this speed again and again throughout the entire trip.

JD Mall: When Retail Becomes a Data Laboratory

A particularly strong example of this is our visit to JD Mall in Beijing. 50,000 square meters of retail space — combined with real-time data analysis from JD.com’s online commerce platform. The company is testing a fully “phygital” retail model here.

Visitor flows are analyzed, product tests evaluated and online and offline data merged together. Physical retail is not being replaced — it is being optimized through data.

At the same time, there are already stores from robotics companies such as Unitree, where humanoid robots are now being sold for just a few thousand euros.

Humanoid robotics in China is currently moving beyond the pure research stage — and increasingly becoming a consumer product.

Even seemingly small details show how experimental the market has become: inside the mall, JD is currently testing robots that could soon prepare coffee autonomously and demonstrate the coffee machines directly to customers before the machines can then be ordered online.

Shenzhen: The Operating System of the Hardware World

After the flight to Shenzhen, the mood within the group visibly changes.

Shenzhen feels less like a traditional city — and more like a gigantic testing environment for new technologies. Between skyscrapers, robotaxis, drones and electric vehicles, you get the impression that innovation here is not treated as an exception, but as the default state.

This becomes especially clear during our first ride with Pony.ai.

Via an app, we book a self-driving vehicle that moves through traffic completely naturally on its own. For many people in the group, this is one of those moments where you realize how far certain technologies have already entered everyday life here. For many locals, however, it has long become normality.

And that is probably one of the biggest differences:

China often does not spend years discussing new technologies theoretically — it brings them quickly into real-world application.

Robotics, Drones and the New Mobility Market

In Shenzhen and Guangzhou, robotics and automation are practically everywhere.

Food deliveries by Meituan drones have meanwhile become part of the cityscape. In shopping malls, Chinese EV brands such as BYD, Zeekr, Li Auto, Xiaomi and many others dominate the scene. Even Huawei is now selling various car models that are fully based on its own software ecosystem.

Particularly striking:

The boundaries between tech companies, platforms and automobile manufacturers are increasingly disappearing.

Many of the most dynamic Chinese car brands no longer come from traditional automotive backgrounds — but from the smartphone, software or platform world.

Even more striking, however, is the speed:

Models with ranges beyond 1,000 kilometers are now being offered at price points that are likely to put massive pressure on Western manufacturers.

At the same time, we see at companies such as Padbot or Ubtech how robotics is already being deployed productively — in hotels, factories, logistics centers and public spaces.

What is still often presented as a trade show demo in the West has in many cases already become operational reality here.

EHang and the New Reality of Air Mobility

The topic of future mobility becomes particularly impressive during our visit to EHang in Guangzhou.

The company is working on autonomous air taxis — and is no longer just testing them, but already operating initial commercial applications in selected regions.

And it is no longer only about passenger transport. Topics such as firefighting drones, autonomous rescue systems and urban air logistics are already being developed concretely.

In this context, we also visit Phoenix Wings, the drone subsidiary of SF Express — one of China’s largest logistics companies.

There, we see how autonomous transport drones are already being tested and deployed across more than 1,500 routes around Shenzhen. According to the company, more than one million flights have already been completed.

What stands out most:

These systems no longer feel like traditional pilot projects — but increasingly like real infrastructure for the logistics systems of the future.

What is particularly fascinating is less the individual technology itself, and more the speed at which regulatory freedom is being created in order to test such systems in real-world environments.

The Knowledge City: Urban Development as an Innovation Strategy

China’s sheer scale becomes especially visible in the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City.

An entire innovation city for several hundred thousand people — built within just a few years.

Universities, research centers, startups, housing and industry are systematically planned together there. The scale is hardly comparable to European projects.

And at the same time, one thing becomes clear:

China no longer sees innovation purely as a technology issue. But rather as a combination of infrastructure, capital, talent development and speed.

iCarbonX: The Digitalization of the Human Body

At the end of the trip, one final surprise awaits us. During our visit to iCarbonX, we are not welcomed by a sales team — but directly by the founder himself: Wang Jun.

And it quickly becomes clear why this company has attracted so much international attention. iCarbonX belongs to a very small group of Chinese healthcare startups with unicorn status — companies valued at more than one billion US dollars.

The idea behind it sounds almost like science fiction:

The human body is meant to be gradually digitized in its entirety. Through regular blood analysis, genetic data, biomarkers and AI-supported evaluation systems, a kind of digital twin of our health is intended to emerge over time.

Particularly remarkable:

According to the company, certain analyses could eventually become available for around 100 euros — including extensive genome and health evaluations.

Of course, many regulatory, ethical and medical questions still remain unanswered. Nevertheless, it becomes clear how heavily China is now investing in areas such as biotech, health AI and longevity.

Almost even more interesting than the technology itself, however, is Wang Jun as a personality.

The former genome researcher speaks less like a traditional startup founder — and more like someone who is convinced that medicine will fundamentally change over the coming decades. Prevention instead of pure treatment. Continuous data analysis instead of isolated diagnostics.

Whether all of these visions can ultimately be realized exactly as imagined remains open.

But one thing becomes clear during this visit:

The global longevity and health AI market is likely to gain massive momentum over the coming years — and China intends to position itself at the very forefront.

Our Biggest Learning

Perhaps the biggest insight from this trip was not a single technology.

But rather the combination of:

Speed
Pragmatism
Scalability
and a broad societal openness toward new technologies.

China is no longer simply copying Western ideas.

In many areas, entirely new models, platforms and innovation logics are emerging.

Of course, there are also challenges:

Overcapacity, geopolitical tensions, data privacy concerns and regulatory risks remain very real.

But equally real is this:

The speed of innovation among many Chinese companies has become enormous.

And honestly, one of our most grounded takeaways was something much simpler:

The diversity and quality of Chinese cuisine probably exceeded everything many of us in Germany had previously associated with “Chinese food.” From Sichuan hotpot and Beijing duck to Yunnan, Hunan and Cantonese cuisine, it quickly becomes clear that China is not only made up of different innovation ecosystems — but also dozens of culinary worlds.

So there is still quite a lot to learn there as well. :-)

Our Conclusion

China today is no longer just the “factory of the world.”

The country is increasingly developing into an independent technology and innovation ecosystem — with massive influence on mobility, AI, robotics, platform economies and digital infrastructure.

And perhaps that was the most important realization of our trip:

You can no longer understand China from a distance.

You have to experience it.

We will definitely come back.

— Sascha Kurfiss