Today (October 7) marks the final day of this year's National Day holiday. The Ministry of Transport predicted before the holiday that during the seven-day National Day break, cross-regional passenger flows across the country would reach 2.13 billion person-trips, averaging about 300 million per day, 1.7 times the normal level. Amid this nationwide travel boom, mountain scenic areas have seen a fresh highlight go viral this National Day holiday: beyond the hiking poles that everyone carries, borrowing a pair of "mechanical legs" to climb mountains has become a novel attraction. "You can lift your legs without any effort, and two batteries can last 5 to 6 hours." On the mist-shrouded mountain trails of Mount Emei, a visitor over fifty years old, wearing an exoskeleton hiking-assist robot, shared this sentiment with a reporter.
During the holiday, when the reporter visited Mount Emei, Mutianyu Great Wall, and other scenic areas on the ground, it was clear that this rental trend is not an isolated case. From Mount Tai to Mount Hua, from Mutianyu Great Wall to Daocheng Yading, according to the reporter's incomplete tally, exoskeleton robots (hereafter referred to simply as exoskeletons) are landing at major mountain scenic areas in the guise of "hiking plugins," with dozens of 4A and 5A scenic areas launching rental services, and even foreign tourists at Mutianyu Great Wall renting them for a try. As robots step out of factories and into scenic areas, the threshold for hiking and trekking is being rewritten by this "mecha" gear. This year, the consumer-grade exoskeleton sector has heated up sharply, with companies such as Haier, Chengti Technology, and Jiku Technology launching new products and attracting capital favor. The reporter personally wore the device for hands-on testing, spoke with scenic area operators and company executives, and also saw that the industry still faces real challenges such as equipment maintenance, cost sharing, and profit models.
Humanoid robots are still "learning" in data collection centers, but exoskeletons have already stepped into tourists' real itineraries ahead of them. Is this "hiking mecha" a genuine trend, or an "IQ tax" forced into maturity by scenic area traffic? Between cost and experience, how can the industry find a balance, and how much potential does the market hold?
From "Hiking Poles" to "Exoskeletons": Can Provide About 10 Kilograms of Assistance
"During last year's National Day period, visitors who chose to hike on foot accounted for nearly 20%. Based on Mount Emei's visitor volume, at least several hundred thousand tourists choose to trek every year. So this year, we hope that through exoskeleton robots, more visitors can experience the possibility of 'pain-free hiking.'" Liu Haibo, securities affairs representative of Emeishan Tourism Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as Emeishan Tourism) and chairman of Sichuan Lingchuang Digital Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as Lingchuang Digital Intelligence), which has deep roots in the cultural tourism industry for more than twenty years, told the reporter.
This National Day holiday, Mount Emei scenic area remained extremely popular, with an endless stream of visitors carrying hiking poles. However, on the mist-shrouded stepped trails, besides visitors holding hiking poles, a group of experiencers wearing exoskeleton hiking-assist robots has also become a new trend at the scenic area. The reporter saw on site at Mount Emei that the entire device weighs about 2 kilograms, is worn around the waist, with two mechanical arms fitting along the outer thighs and fixed above the knees. The wearing process takes less than a minute, and most rental points are staffed with personnel to assist with fitting. According to staff, the device can provide about 10 kilograms of assistance, with 5 adjustable levels, and two batteries together can support 5 to 6 hours.
"There are five power levels, with assistance adapted according to different body weights. The fifth level is more suitable for providing assistance to people with heavier body weight (for example, over 80 kilograms), while people with lighter weight are advised to use lower levels, which will be more suitable. In addition, at this stage, the device is not open to visitors during heavy rain or snow, as improper operation can easily create risks." Liang Zhihao, project manager at Lingchuang Digital Intelligence under Emeishan Tourism, explained this to the reporter.
After personally wearing the device for several hours while climbing steps uphill, descending, and walking on flat ground, the reporter had a very direct impression: after putting it on, when lifting the legs, the thighs can feel a clear upward push, and uphill climbing speed is relatively faster; the assistance is not obvious when descending or on flat ground, but after removing the device, the legs feel a contrasting sensation of "becoming heavier."
"From actual operating data, exoskeleton robots can help visitors save 30% of their physical strength. This has been verified repeatedly through data." Liu Haibo told the reporter that the device mainly plays a role when going uphill, while downhill assistance is not yet obvious, and multiple rental points are set up along the way where batteries can be swapped. On pricing and operating model, the reporter learned that Mount Emei scenic area currently deploys about 200 devices across 8 rental points. Visitors can rent by scanning a QR code and paying a deposit, similar to a power bank rental model; the current price is 49.9 yuan per hour, capped at 300 yuan.
During this National Day holiday, visitors using exoskeletons to climb at Mutianyu Great Wall also came in an endless stream, including foreign tourists. The reporter learned that the scenic area charges 100 yuan for 3 hours, with an additional 20 yuan per hour beyond that. The exoskeleton rental point at the Mutianyu Great Wall scenic area in Beijing. Photo provided by interviewee.
From "Hiking Plugin" to "Rescue Tool": Is the Scenic Area Boom Just the Beginning?
As the threshold for hiking is lowered by a pair of "smart legs," exoskeleton robots are becoming a new consumption boom at scenic areas in the guise of a "hiking plugin." According to the reporter's incomplete tally, dozens of 4A and 5A scenic areas nationwide have launched hiking exoskeleton rental services.
"Previously in Daocheng Yading, there were two Hong Kong tourists in their sixties. They were very curious when they saw exoskeleton robot rentals at the scenic area, so they tried it. At the time, they spent 500 yuan to rent one for a day, and after the experience they felt it was pretty good. Because they were later going to travel to Tibet and Xinjiang and were worried their physical condition might not adapt well to high-altitude travel, they very much wanted to buy the device outright." Recalling visitor feedback, Chi Haidong, co-founder of Chengti Technology, told the reporter, "At the time, even our service providers were a bit stunned."
As one of the few domestic unicorn companies simultaneously in the top tier across all three major exoskeleton tracks 鈥?medical rehabilitation, consumer walking assistance, and industrial applications 鈥?Chengti Technology's operations on the scenic area side have covered more than a dozen well-known scenic areas including Beijing Mutianyu Great Wall, Zhejiang Tiantai Mountain Waterfall, Yunnan Yulong Snow Mountain, and Sichuan Daocheng Yading. In 2025, consumer-grade exoskeleton sales reached nearly 10,000 units.
According to Chi Haidong, demand on the scenic area side is relatively large, especially among elderly people, whose physical fitness and health conditions do not allow long periods of exercise. With exoskeletons, they can noticeably improve their physical comfort and experience during travel. "After exoskeleton robots unexpectedly went viral in hiking scenarios during the 2025 May Day period, many scenic areas proactively proposed launching such products." Elderly tourists using exoskeletons to climb the Great Wall. Photo provided by interviewee.
Liang Zhihao also told the reporter, "From backend data, middle-aged and elderly users of this device account for 30%, and what they seek is stability without breathlessness; families with children also account for nearly 30%, whose main demand is that the whole family does not fall behind during the trip; the remaining majority are young and middle-aged people aged 15 to 40, who are interested in technology and willing to pay to try something new."
However, the landing of exoskeleton robots in cultural tourism scenarios goes far beyond just mountain hiking. According to Chi Haidong, exoskeleton robots also bring new possibilities for scenic area rescue and outdoor rescue. "Previously at Hangzhou West Lake scenic area, several hikers became hypothermic and trapped while taking wild paths at night. Search and rescue personnel wore exoskeleton robots to search in the mountains. After finding the trapped people, because a female trapped person could no longer walk, the rescue personnel took off the exoskeleton device and put it on her, and in the end she walked down the mountain on her own wearing the device." Chi Haidong gave this example and said that the company has now begun developing a dedicated version for outdoor rescue scenarios.
In Chi Haidong's view, the landing of exoskeletons in scenic area scenarios was not deliberately planned at first. Chengti Technology has focused on exoskeleton technology for more than ten years. The earliest successful landing was in medical scenarios. Later, many hiking enthusiasts took its products on treks, which then gave rise to scenic area applications. After that, scenarios such as fire emergency response, public security, power grid and rail inspection, forestland research, and surveying were gradually connected, allowing exoskeletons to expand from a single medical rehabilitation device into multiple fields including outdoor, emergency, and industrial applications.
From "Black Technology" to "Basic Service": Could It Make Money Before Humanoid Robots?
During this National Day holiday, in conversations with multiple scenic area practitioners and cultural tourism industry figures, the reporter learned that exoskeleton rental has become an important channel for rapid volume growth in the consumer market. Data released by International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that in 2025, China's consumer-assisted exoskeleton robot market size is close to 110 million yuan, with shipment volume of about 19,000 units; rental models represented by scenic areas, elderly care institutions, and professional service providers are becoming a key driver for consumer-grade exoskeletons moving from "experiential consumption" to "daily use."
However, deploying exoskeleton robots in mountain-type scenic areas is not something that can be done overnight. "We laid out the project over one to two years." Liu Haibo said directly that because it involves multiple links such as electricity use, staffing, and equipment transfer, the entire deployment process was quite difficult, and it was not basically completed across the whole line until this year's May Day period. For example, using manpower to transfer equipment presents some difficulties, while using drones for transfer also faces some problems, and overall efficiency also had to be considered.
Having been in the industry for many years, Liu Haibo has personally felt that scenic areas "trying out" exoskeleton robots is also a process of crossing the river by feeling the stones. For scenic areas, introducing an exoskeleton project is an account that requires careful calculation. The reporter learned from interviews that, taking Mount Emei as an example, it is still in the exploratory stage and mainly adopts a "light-asset operation" cooperation model: the scenic area provides the site and a small number of management personnel, while the partner provides equipment and an operations team, and both sides share revenue.
"When it does not yet have clear profitability, we do not easily make heavy-asset investments." Liu Haibo said that at present, the overall operations team on the mountain has 10 to 12 people, using a shift system, with strengthened staffing during holidays. By contrast, Chengti Technology chooses to focus on R&D and production, leaving scenic area operations to partners. "There are so many scenic areas all over the country, and transportation is not very convenient. Building localized deployment and service teams on the ground is not a capability that a company like ours has." Chi Haidong admitted to the reporter. Foreign tourists renting and using exoskeletons at a scenic area. Photo provided by interviewee.
However, in Chi Haidong's view, compared with humanoid robots, which are still at the "data collection center" stage, exoskeletons reach real application scenarios more directly. He further explained to the reporter that based on a large amount of professional gait data accumulated previously in medical scenarios, through multi-sensor data fusion technology, even when motion-related sensor data is insufficient, it can still agilely and accurately identify movement patterns and adapt to and predict different people's personalized gaits. In this process, there must also be specially designed sensing systems, joint modules, biomechanical wearable structures, and human-device integration and control, while the hardware must also balance multiple dimensions such as lightness, strength, battery life, explosive power, and safety. Therefore, on the overall cost side, R&D investment far exceeds the hardware itself.
From "Niche Trial" to "Mass Awareness": Opening Up Incremental Growth Through the Silver-Haired Population?
In recent years, changes in consumers' understanding of exoskeletons have greatly boosted practitioners' confidence. Chi Haidong told the reporter that he has observed that from last year to now, scenic areas, offline activities, and other channels have gradually made some people familiar with exoskeleton robots. However, judging from the degree of domestic aging and the reach of the applicable population, only a small portion of people still know about them. As user awareness moves from unfamiliarity to understanding, the maturation of the supply chain will also drive market volume growth, and future growth potential is very large.
Behind this is a track that is rapidly expanding. Public data shows that by the end of 2025, China's population aged 60 and above exceeded 300 million, and domestic residents made 6.522 billion trips in 2025. The travel needs of the elderly population and the development of public outdoor activities will provide potential space for exoskeletons to move from scenic area experiences to more daily scenarios. Data from the Zhongyan Puhua Industry Research Institute shows that from 2023 to 2028, the average annual compound growth rate of China's exoskeleton robot market size is expected to be about 50%. At the same time, since the beginning of this year, the consumer-grade exoskeleton robot sector has heated up sharply, and multiple companies in related fields have gained capital favor. Visitors at Mount Emei experiencing "exoskeletons." Photo by reporter Wen Menghua.
In Liu Haibo's expectations, if scenic area exoskeletons are gradually accepted by a broad range of visitors, revenue is expected to reach a scale of 10 million yuan in about three years. More importantly, exoskeletons are evolving from "black technology trial" to "basic service." "We hope to explore a new way that fits modern tourism and digital technology plus cultural tourism, to meet visitors' more diverse and personalized needs, and also become a new growth curve for the company." Liu Haibo said that in the future, exoskeleton robots should be a basic service provided by mountain-type scenic areas for hiking visitors, similar to diversified travel choices such as high-speed rail, airplanes, and automobiles, and will become a basic option for visitors climbing mountains.