--- title: "Shenzhen Tech Tour: Fly a Drone at DJI & 3D Printing | LyrikTrip" description: "A Shenzhen half-day with your hands on it: DJI's first flagship store — 800 m², with a flight demo bay and a flight cinema — then a 3D printing centre where you watch an object appear and take it away warm." type: "experience" source: "film" url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing" canonical_url: "https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing" locale: "en-GB" alternates: {"en-US":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","en-GB":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/en-GB/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","zh-CN":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-CN/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","zh-TW":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/zh-TW/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","de-DE":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/de-DE/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","fr-FR":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/fr-FR/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","es-ES":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/es-ES/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","it-IT":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/it-IT/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing","x-default":"https://www.lyriktrip.com/experience/shenzhen-drones-and-3d-printing"} --- ![The angular glass exterior of DJI's flagship store at OCT Bay, Shenzhen](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0c31380e23c3.webp) Shenzhen · Half a day, booked on its own # You fly one. *You print one.* Half a day with your hands on the things Shenzhen actually makes: a gimbal that refuses to let the horizon move, a drone you fly indoors, and an object you watch appear a tenth of a millimetre at a time. - Where: Shenzhen — two venues · DJI flagship at OCT Bay, Nanshan · a 3D printing centre - How long: Half a day - You leave with: What you printed · Still warm, in your hand 深圳 LyrikTrip · a standalone half-day experience ## Rotor*& Resin* - Half a day - Two venues - Indoors, supervised - You keep the print ## What you get ### Half a day, *and you leave holding something* ### You'll see - **The first flagship store DJI ever built** — 800 m², opened 2015, on OCT Bay - An enclosed **flight demonstration bay**, a hands-on floor and a flight cinema - A drone releasing into a dead hover and correcting its own drift while you watch - A print nozzle building an object from nothing, layer by visible layer ### You'll handle - A three-axis gimbal, while you walk badly on purpose - The sticks of an aircraft you are actually flying - **Your print, lifted off the plate while it is still warm** ### You'll hear - That **roughly seven of every ten civilian drones on earth** are built in this city - What the three motors are arguing with your arm about, several hundred times a second - Why the interesting moment is letting go of the sticks, not holding them ### You'll take home - **The object you printed** — chosen by you, flat enough for hand luggage - A real sense of what stabilisation is doing, from your own arm - Footage you shot on a gimbal that makes you look better than you are ## Act I — The closed city ![The flagship store building seen from the plaza](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/7cbbb4c4c978.webp) ![The circular interior display floor of the flagship store](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/b4196bb18c52.webp) ![Visitors handling products at the store counter](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/43ec9347036b.webp) Most industrial tourism here is a corridor and a window. *Someone else operates; you nod.* This store was built the other way round. Eight hundred square metres, and the founding idea was a single word: *experience*. Which means a demo bay, a hands-on floor and a flight cinema — and things you are expected to pick up. ## 01 — The store ![A drone on display inside the flagship store](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/fc87a7e812ec.webp) 09:50 The first one they built ### Opened December 2015, and the first 800 m² · OCT Bay, Nanshan · open every day of the year This was DJI's first flagship store anywhere in the world, on the southeast corner of OCT Bay next to the carnival plaza. Inside: a static display area, a flight demonstration bay, a hands-on zone, a talks area and a flight cinema. It opens ten in the morning until ten at night, later at weekends, and does not close. ## 02 — The easy one first ![Hands holding a camera gimbal](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/a2e741347054.webp) 10:20 Start with the gimbal ### Two seconds to understand Walk badly on purpose · watch the horizon stay put A gimbal is the fastest way to feel what all of this is doing. You hold it, you walk badly on purpose, and the image simply refuses to move. Three motors and an accelerometer, arguing with your arm several hundred times a second, and winning. ## 03 — The demo bay ![The darkened experience zone inside the store](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d6bf932f0ec0.webp) 10:50 Indoors, supervised ### Let go of the sticks and watch Enclosed · staff-supervised · no licence needed The demonstration bay is enclosed, so a first-timer can fly without anything going badly. The instructive bit is not flying it — it is releasing the sticks. The aircraft stops dead in the air and holds, correcting against its own drift, and you can watch it deciding. ## 04 — Layer by layer ![A 3D printer nozzle laying down filament](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/500c4e1f28c9.webp) 11:30 The other room ### It appears from the bottom up A tenth of a millimetre at a time A printer nozzle lays a line about a tenth of a millimetre thick, then does it again, a few thousand times. Nothing about the process is hidden — you watch the whole object come into existence — and it is far slower and far more absorbing than anyone expects. ## 05 — Take it off ![A three-dimensional model on a laptop screen at the printing centre](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/6ecc23a0cfee.webp) 12:10 The good bit ### Chosen on screen, lifted off warm Yours · flat enough to pack You pick or adjust the object on screen first, then lever it off the plate while it is still warm — a small and genuinely satisfying moment. It is also the neatest possible souvenir: chosen by you, made in the city that makes them, and small enough for hand luggage. ## Not a factory tour ### Shenzhen has plenty of factory tours. *This is not one.* The usual industrial visit - A walkway, a window, a guide with a microphone - Someone else operates the machine - Photography often restricted - You leave with a brochure - You could have watched the same thing online This half-day - You hold the gimbal and fly the aircraft yourself - Indoors and supervised, so a beginner can't get it wrong - You choose what to print and watch it built - You take the print away, still warm - The city stops being a supplier and becomes a place you did something ## The bench, unrolled ### What you get your hands on Rotor · lens · nozzle · resin ![A camera rig on a gimbal](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/040baa4c813d.webp) **The rig**稳定器 · heavier than it looks ![Close view of gimbal motors](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/291e2691f1c7.webp) **The motors**三轴 · correcting hundreds of times a second ![A 3D printer laying a layer](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/bd1ba696ed60.webp) **The layer**层高 · a tenth of a millimetre ![The 3D printing creative centre](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/d9de5c079824.webp) **The centre**打印创造中心 · built to be walked into ![A complex 3D printed mesh object](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/0ccaf678d0e8.webp) **The print**成品 · impossible to mould ## Practicalities - Duration: Half a day - Where: DJI flagship, OCT Bay Nanshan, then a 3D printing centre - Store hours: 10:00–22:00, later Fri–Sat; open year-round - Flying: Indoors, supervised — no licence needed - Printing: You choose the object; print times vary - Guide: English-speaking, throughout - You keep: Your print ## End card ![Printed parts collected at the end of the session](https://cdn.lyriktrip.com/s/1a69e19153c2.webp) ### Book *the flight* Half a day on its own, hotel to hotel. 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