China's first AI theme park opens in Beijing

The new humanoid robot Wu Kong. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's first artificial intelligence (AI) theme park opened to public in early November, after 10 months renovation of a municipal park in northern Beijing.

Driverless shuttle buses, smart lamp posts that can record exercise data, and intelligent speakers that can respond to human instructions have been installed in Haidian Park, which covers about 34 hectares near the 4th Ring Road.

The district government of Haidian and Internet company Baidu signed an agreement in January to jointly explore "smart city" building. Haidian Park, which received about 1.2 million tourists last year, was chosen to run the pilot program.

A total of 10 government departments and companies participated in the renovation of the park over the past 10 months, said Che Jianguo from the district's park administration office.

In recent years, Chinese high-tech companies have set foot in the AI industry, while the central government also stressed in October that it would boost the development of the country's new generation of artificial intelligence.