On August 13th, an article highlighted the practical development of embodied intelligence industries in three Chinese cities: Tai'an in Shandong, Shaoxing in Zhejiang, and Guiyang in Guizhou. It focused on how Yunyan District in Guiyang is leveraging its computing power foundation to support real-world applications, attracting data companies with cost advantages, diverse use cases, and policy incentives, which has also generated numerous local jobs.

Currently, Yunyan District has gathered nearly 80 data companies and employs over 3,000 people. In Tai'an City's Taishan District, residents are becoming data collectors. At the Boshui Community in Qiujiadian Town, 59-year-old Zhu Chuanzhen, wearing a sports camera and holding two phones, recorded a 10-minute video of folding clothes to train a robot. She never imagined household chores could become valuable digital assets, giving her a new role as a "data collector." "There are no education or age limits; I can work near home without neglecting my family," Zhu said. Now, over 60 residents in the community are engaged in data collection. The backend team reviews the footage for accuracy, and qualified data is delivered to partner companies. "Our job is to act as teachers for robots, feeding them massive real-world data for training," said Zhou Feng, head of the training department at a local data company. Scenarios like homes, factories, pharmacies, and offices require continuous data, and the industry faces a huge gap. The company plans to deploy over 1,000 collection devices, aiming to create a unique "embodied collection community" and provide over 600 local jobs. Why did a high-end data service company choose this location? Zhou noted that from project negotiation to park operation, it took less than four months, thanks to the Taishan District's policy support and services. The district now has a complete industry chain covering data collection, labeling, model training, scenario application, and talent incubation, forming a robust data labeling ecosystem.

In Shangyu District, Shaoxing City, intelligent robots are taking root in industrial production lines. At a chemical company's spray tower workshop, a quadruped robot navigates pipe corridors, scanning with a "mechanical eye." The 15 spray towers run at high temperatures, requiring manual inspections every four hours—a task that used to leave workers soaked in sweat. "Now, robots handle these tasks, letting us focus on fine control and efficiency," said Lu Dede, a 13-year veteran at the workshop. Shangyu is pursuing a differentiated path by embedding intelligent robots into production lines. Its robust block economy, including motor equipment (the "joints" of robots) and new materials (key for lightweight and high sensitivity), supports this. "Brushless torque motors, harmonic reducers, and six-axis force sensors, previously sold to machine tool and wind power industries, are now critical components for robot chains," said Zheng Yanwen, a manager at a local motor company. "Embodied intelligence needs massive, real-world application scenarios," an executive noted. In April, Shangyu established a Scenario Application Office, releasing a "scenario opportunity list" covering 12 high-value applications, starting with the chemical sector. "Shangyu has a top-tier fine chemical park with high-risk, difficult-to-hire roles like hazardous inspections and material handling, which are perfect for embodied robots," said Jin Quanwei, head of the office. The integration of research, production, and application allows Shangyu to quickly transform robots from "lab prototypes" to "market products." In July, the Yangtze River Delta Embodied Intelligence Test Lab was launched in Shangyu, leveraging its location to break geographical limits and foster continuous growth.

In Yunyan District, Guiyang, a data collector wears a panoramic capture headband and data receiver, grabbing and storing objects in different environments. Based on orders, the company needs to complete over 200,000 hours of data collection this year. "This data will be fed to robots for deep learning," said General Manager Huang Jian. Robots may excel in lab settings but can fail in unstructured, dynamic real-world scenarios due to the "semantic gap" between training data and deployment environments. This requires a systematic, engineering-replicable data collection system. To achieve 200,000 hours, the company needs to lease at least 300 houses and 500 devices. In July, it also recruited partners for data collection. Data companies have brought significant local employment. Currently, Yunyan District has nearly 80 data companies and over 3,000 employees. Why do they choose Yunyan? Huang credits cost advantages: rental prices are far lower than in first-tier cities, and labor costs are relatively low. Additionally, embodied intelligence needs diverse experiences, and Yunyan, as a provincial capital's main district, offers abundant scenarios like shopping malls, hotels, and hospitals. Qin Qi, director of the Yunyan District Big Data Development Administration, said the district has opened over 10 types of urban scenarios and introduced "Yun Ten Articles," Guizhou's first county-level digital economy policy, boosting appeal. Furthermore, as a national hub for the "Eastern Data, Western Computing" project, Guizhou hosts one of the world's largest data center clusters, with computing power among the top in China, supporting the massive training, complex simulations, and algorithm verification needed for embodied intelligence models.