Delivery from the Air: China Overtakes Germany in Drones and Air Taxis

Real heroes must go to Badaling. Through the place in the northwest of China's capital Beijing, the Great Wall snakes through the steep hills - a pilgrimage site for the Chinese. For it was there that China's most famous statesman Mao Zedong once climbed up and is said to have famously remarked: He who has not been on the Wall is not a true hero. Decades later, masses of tourists still toil daily on the former protective wall. Those who have completed the sweaty climb in high-tech China can reward themselves at the top since August with fast food or drinks - delivered by a drone. 

Four to five flying devices are in operation there, says Pu Siwu, an employee of the service provider Meituan, which operates the delivery drones. The drones make 20 deliveries from the valley per hour. On the return trip, they take garbage with them. Orders are placed - of course - via a mobile app. But that’s not all: "This flight route is also used for the transport of emergency medicine," says Pu. In three to five minutes, aids could be provided if a Wall tourist has, for example, blood sugar problems, Pu says.

Beijing fuels the hype 

"Drones are now very common," says aviation expert Shen Yingchun from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. For delivery services, it’s just starting. But in agriculture or to monitor power grids, they have been used a lot, she says. Beijing heavily promotes the so-called Low Altitude Economy, the economy in airspace up to 1000 meters. Drones are counted among the "new qualitative productive forces" with which the Communist Party wants to secure progress and growth in the future. China is fueling the hype around the economic sector, says Shen. This entails high costs and risks, which is why it cannot develop without state aid, she explains. 

In 2023, the sector's value was estimated at 500 billion yuan (currently around 66.3 billion euros) according to official data. By 2030, the sector could be worth about two trillion yuan. As of July, the Civil Aviation Administration counted almost 608,000 registered drones in China, which is 48 percent more than at the end of 2023. According to the head of the authority, Song Zhiyong, there were also more than 14,000 licensed companies in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles in the world's second-largest economy.
 

Coffee from the air at the click of a button 

What fascinates tourists in Badaling is already everyday life in Shenzhen, the metropolis of southern China. There, Meituan delivers coffee and other snacks with drones. Already more than a dozen test stations have been set up in public areas such as parks. Here's how it works: An employee picks up the order placed via the app at the restaurant or café and brings it to a drone launch platform, usually located on the rooftops of shopping centers. There, the delivery is packaged in a box and attached to a drone, which then flies along a fixed route to a pickup station. The drone drops the delivery on the station's roof. From a securely locked compartment, the customer can pick up their order by scanning a QR code. However, even in Shenzhen and Badaling, the service is not always available. Currently, the drones only fly during the day. If it's windy or raining, they stay grounded.

Air taxis on the rise

"Shenzhen is definitely a pioneer, not only in terms of the industrial chain there but also because of its political guidelines," says Shen. In Shenzhen's province of Guangdong, where the megacity Guangzhou is also located and adjacent to Hong Kong, drones and autonomous air taxis are set to further connect the cities. Unmanned air taxis are supposed to take passengers to their destination in just a few minutes, bypassing congested streets. However, with over 1,000 euros per flight, it is hardly suitable for the masses. The state and manufacturers still face challenges: Airspaces are only slowly opening up to the drone economy, as expert Shen says. From a technical perspective, batteries have not lasted long enough so far. Moreover, important sensors or lightweight parts still need to be imported.