Tech travelers flock to China as global innovation race heats up

While data on tech tours is scarce, broader industrial tourism is booming. China’s industrial tourism sector pulled in $17.8 billion last year, according to state media, and is projected to blow past $44.6 billion by 2029.

Shanghai-based tech tour agency GloPen says inquiries jumped 50% in 2026, mostly from European and Singaporean clients, and it now runs over 100 single-day company tours every month.

“You cannot grasp the true scale, speed, and physicality of Chinese innovation without standing on the factory floor,” says Bertrand Chen, CEO of the Global Shipping Business Network, who joined an April three-city robotics and emerging tech tour organized by Chinese American investor Rui Ma.

Ma, founder of Tech Buzz China and organizer of 11 such tours since 2019, frames it as essential due diligence: “Even if you’re not actively investing in China, you’re increasingly likely to encounter Chinese companies as competitors, partners, suppliers, or investments in markets around the world.”

The circuit spans Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hefei, the industrial powerhouses at the heart of China’s electric-vehicle, battery, AI and robotics boom.

World leaders have also flocked to Xiaomi’s Beijing auto factory, while Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz was famously filmed watching Unitree’s dancing humanoid robots in Hangzhou, a high-profile showcase of the country’s technological ascent.

None of this is happening by accident.

Beijing has explicitly pledged to “vigorously promote” industrial tourism, designating over 140 official demonstration sites. A growing number of factories are offering public tours at around $60 a pop.