A special school for humanoid robots

In an office building in Beijing's Shijingshan district, a special "school" is in full swing, with nearly 200 human teachers and 100 humanoid robot students.

The instructors wear headsets, hold control levers and move slowly, while nearby 1.66-meter-tall humanoid robots mirror their motions. The curriculum is mundane. The students repeat everyday tasks such as taking a medicine bottle from a cabinet, carrying goods in a factory, sorting parcels on a conveyor belt, and leafing through office files.

The "campus" is China's largest humanoid robot data-training center, co-built by the Shijingshan district government and Leju Robotics. The training areas reproduce factory and household scenes at full scale, with every detail faithfully replicating real working conditions.

Across the country, data-collection training grounds now hum with robot "students" learning new skills. In real-world settings — from medical care to elderly rehabilitation, from energy exploration to emergency rescue — they are trained nonstop, each trial a small step toward bridging the final gap before the robot era.