A group of American university students got a firsthand look at China's rapidly growing low-altitude economy on Friday, visiting a flying-car company in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, during an exchange tour of the country.
The visit was part of the "2026 U.S. University Student Pickleball People-to-People Exchange China Tour", which is taking a 29-member delegation of students and faculty members to Guangzhou and the Chinese capital Beijing.
At the Guangzhou-based company, the students watched a flying car take to the sky, explored the latest models on display and got hands-on experience operating one of the aircraft.
Issa, a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the visit made a lasting impression on him and sparked hopes of joining the industry one day.
"The new technology and advancements, and there are always so many pictures to document, and this experience is once in a lifetime. And it's great to see technology and it's amazing. Hopefully we could work sometime maybe for this company or some type of collaboration," he said.
Milca, a student from the University of Washington, likened the experience to gaming.
"So it's forward, and then backward, and then to turn like left. I mean seeing this firsthand is amazing. I've never been in a helicopter. It is like a video game. I'd love to see how it's integrated into society and how we can help make it more accessible as well," she said.
Their tour was organized by the China Center for International People-to-People Exchange under China's Ministry of Education. It is part of a new initiative proposed by China in September to invite 100,000 young Americans to the country for exchange and educational programs over the next five years, after an earlier program brought 50,000 young Americans to China over a five-year period.
The aircraft the students sampled are part of China's low-altitude economy, an emerging sector built on drones, flying cars and other small aircraft that the country is positioning as a key engine for high-quality growth.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), a blueprint mapping out the country's social and economic priorities, outlines the need to promote the sector's sound and orderly development. The market is expected to reach 3.5 trillion yuan (about 490 billion U.S. dollars) by 2035, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
China’s achievements in low-altitude economy wow visiting U.S. students
