VI
EN
Tourists visiting the Great Wall can now receive their lunches from the air, thanks to a new drone delivery service from Meituan, a major Chinese food delivery company. Announced last week, the service will deliver food, drinks, and even essential items like medical supplies to tourists in a remote section of the ancient site, located on the outskirts of Beijing.
Tech giant Meituan offers drone delivery services to the famous Badaling area of the Great Wall of China. They deliver food and medicine packages to tourists experiencing the world's longest wall.
Tourists visiting the Great Wall of China can now receive their lunch from the air.
The new service does not offer direct drone delivery to customers. Instead, drones will fly along a fixed route from the warehouse to a landing site at the Great Wall of China, after which delivery personnel will bring the packages to customers.
According to Meituan, each drone can carry up to 2.3kg of goods per trip and can operate in "light wind and rain." The company will provide the service free of charge during the trial phase. After this phase, the fee will be equivalent to the price of regular delivery.
Yan Yan, director of public relations for Meituan's drone business, said: "Thanks to drones, we can deliver cooling items and emergency necessities to tourists in just 5 minutes instead of 50 minutes of walking."
Drone delivery costs only 4 yuan, equivalent to Meituan's regular delivery fee. The service accepts orders from 10 am to 4 pm, after which drones are tasked with transporting waste to recycling stations.
However, the drones still require human assistance. Upon receiving an order, Meituan staff will pick up the goods from a nearby store and bring them to the hotel's rooftop, where they will be weighed and packaged. Then, the operator will attach the package to the drone, which will automatically fly to the watchtower, where another staff member is waiting to receive the package.
Currently, several more companies are using the service. To date, Meituan has operated 30 drone delivery routes, processing over 300,000 orders.
Delivery by drone costs only 4 yuan, the same as regular delivery fees.
Shanghai has established two drone delivery routes in Yangpu District over the past eight months to serve a bustling commercial area and a public park. Cities such as Wuhu, Zhuzhou, and Nantong will also introduce drone delivery services this year.
This is Beijing's first drone delivery service, making Meituan the second Chinese company to enter the drone delivery market.
Drone delivery services in China have boomed in recent years. In 2016, e-commerce giant JD launched its first trial using drones for rural deliveries, capable of carrying 15kg of goods over a distance of up to 20km, reducing delivery time from 4 hours by car on winding mountain roads to under 20 minutes.
