You can now order takeout at the Badaling Great Wall, with Meituan drones delivering food in as little as 5 minutes
2024-08-16
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Beijing News (Reporter Qin Shengnan) On August 16, Meituan UAV Badaling Great Wall opened Beijing's first regular drone delivery route. The delivery route landing point is located at the South Nine Towers on the extension line of the South City of Badaling Great Wall. The fastest drone delivery from takeoff to delivery and landing takes only 5 minutes. Tourists can order takeout when visiting the area to meet their needs for drinking water, simple meals, heatstroke prevention and emergency medicines.
The southern extension of the Badaling Great Wall will be open to the public at the end of 2023. In order to preserve the original appearance of the area as much as possible, no commercial facilities are set up, and tourists need to walk for at least half an hour to replenish drinking water and other supplies. Drone delivery of takeout will more effectively meet consumer needs.
Meituan drones are delivering goods to tourists at the Great Wall. Photo by Qin Shengnan, a reporter from the Beijing News
The take-off point for the Meituan drone route to the Badaling Great Wall is located on the rooftop of the Badaling Hotel. On August 16, a Beijing News reporter saw three Meituan drones parked in the take-off area. When merchants in the scenic area receive orders from tourists, Meituan pick-up staff will pick up the food and quickly deliver it to the drone take-off point. After weighing and packaging, the take-out food is handed over to ground staff to fix it to the drone and execute the delivery instructions. The fastest time from take-off to landing is 5 minutes, and the fastest time from tourists placing an order to picking up the food is about 20 minutes.
According to the staff, during the early test flight period, there were many orders for drinking water, emergency medicines, etc., and the drone delivery operation time was from 10:00 to 16:00. After the operation time ends every day, the drone will transform from a "porter" to a "sanitation worker" to assist the scenic area operation and maintenance personnel in cleaning up the waste.
In October 2020, Beijing's Yanqing District was approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China as the first batch and the only "Civil Unmanned Aerial Pilot Zone" in Beijing. Yanqing has currently identified drones as one of the four key industries to be cultivated in the region, and recently established the first Zhongguancun Low-Altitude Economic Industrial Park in Beijing. Zhang Wei, deputy director of the Zhongguancun Yanqing Park Management Committee, said in an interview with the Beijing News that the cooperation with Meituan is an innovative attempt in the low-altitude economic industry. In the future, the construction of drone application scenarios will be expanded in drone logistics distribution, Great Wall protection, emergency rescue, etc., so that drones can fly and boost the development of Beijing's low-altitude economy.
This is the first time that a normalized drone delivery service has been launched in Beijing. Mao Yinian, vice president of Meituan and head of drone business, said that drone delivery solves the pain points of delivery in special scenarios such as the difficulty for riders to arrive quickly. Meituan has achieved safe delivery through independent research and development and technical improvement, and the cost of drone delivery has also decreased year by year. In the future, it will achieve "general delivery scenarios comparable to labor costs, and special application scenarios have more advantages", which will help promote drone delivery to cover a large area. At present, Meituan drones have opened more than 30 routes in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities, and have completed more than 300,000 orders in total, covering a variety of scenarios such as offices, communities, scenic spots, emergency medical care, campuses, and libraries.
Editor: Li Yan
Proofread by Mu Xiangtong
