义乌开始卖 UFO 了，80 万一台Yiwu Is Selling UFOs Now — 800,000 Yuan Apiece

The video claiming "Yiwu is selling UFOs now" went viral. That thing is not a prop — it's a disc-shaped manned aircraft that is genuinely on sale and genuinely flies: 800,000 yuan each, a flight altitude of about 30 meters, and 15 minutes of endurance. Below, the questions everyone is asking most, answered one by one.

Abstract

The video claiming "Yiwu is selling UFOs now" went viral. That thing is not a prop — it's a disc-shaped manned aircraft that is genuinely on sale and genuinely flies: 800,000 yuan each, a flight altitude of about 30 meters, and 15 minutes of endurance. Below, the questions everyone is asking most, answered one by one.

Body

The conclusion first, so you don't have to guess

Recently, a video titled "Yiwu is selling UFOs now" went viral on social platforms.

That thing is not a film prop, and it's not a prank device. It's a disc-shaped manned aircraft that is genuinely on sale and genuinely flies, sitting on the fourth floor of the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center in Zhejiang, in the showroom of Shenzhen Zhihang UAV Co., Ltd.

The industry calls it a manned eVTOL. eVTOL is short for "electric vertical take-off and landing" — put simply: electrically driven, able to take off and land in place like a helicopter, no runway required.

Yiwu being Yiwu. People used to come here to wholesale socks and toys; now they come here to look at a manned flying saucer.

But lively as the buzz is, a few key numbers need to be put on the table. Below, the questions everyone is asking most, answered one by one.

Question 1: How high and how long can it fly

Flight altitude of about 30 meters, endurance of 15 minutes.

Thirty meters is roughly ten stories. Put those two numbers together and its positioning becomes clear: it's a low-altitude experience device that does a loop around a scenic area, not a means of transportation. It won't solve your commute, and it won't get you anywhere.

Question 2: What does it look like, and what keeps it in the air

The shape is a standard "flying saucer": a disc-shaped fuselage with a fully transparent 360-degree spherical cabin that seats 1 to 2 passengers. The main materials are fiberglass, carbon fiber, aluminum alloy, and aviation plywood.

The key is the "six-ducted-fan" design. Ducted means the propellers are enclosed in a ring-shaped housing — on this machine, the blades are fully enclosed inside the fuselage. There are three benefits: you can't see the high-speed spinning blades from outside, both safety and noise performance are better, and the shape comes closer to the flying saucer in the public imagination.

In flight, it takes off and lands vertically, needs no runway, and supports autonomous flight. It also has amphibious take-off and landing capability, and is rated for wind resistance up to level five.

Question 3: How much does it cost

800,000 yuan each.

That price sounds like something you could grit your teeth and reach, but it is not a consumer product. Zhihang's main scenarios for this manned saucer are low-altitude sightseeing, scenic-area tours, and flight displays — the common thread being bulk purchase by a scenic area or operator, operation at a designated site, and maintenance by professionals. The buyer is the operator.

What actually targets ordinary people is the 268-yuan toy remote-controlled saucer:

Question 4: Is that "order for 100-plus units" real

It's real, but it got compressed until it was a bit distorted.

Last year, Zhihang UAV signed a pre-sale agreement for the saucer eVTOL with Qionghai Sea Parachuting Co., Ltd. The content: Qionghai Sea Parachuting would purchase 68 two-seat manned saucer eVTOLs, plus 86 static display saucers, for a total of nearly 120 million yuan.

That's 154 units in total. Of those, only 68 can carry people; the other 86 are static display versions — the kind meant for display, which cannot fly.

Quite a few reprints turned this agreement into "a customer ordered 100-plus units in one go," lumping the two product types together, which makes it very easy to read as if all 100-plus units were flyable manned aircraft. That is the most conspicuous piece of information dropped in this chain of transmission.

Some people on site did the math and questioned whether the unit price behind "100-plus units for 120 million yuan" added up. The answer is right here: 86 of the 154 units are not manned aircraft, so dividing the total amount by the total count naturally gives you a number that doesn't match 800,000 yuan.

One more note: what was signed is a pre-sale agreement, not a delivery contract. Public reports contain no language about mass production or bulk delivery.

Question 5: Have the certificates been obtained

The showroom manager says the product has obtained a special flight permit for civil unmanned aircraft issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

One clarification: a special flight permit is a type of authorization document issued by the civil aviation authority for a specific aircraft flying under defined conditions. It is not equivalent to completing airworthiness certification, nor does it mean the aircraft can fly without restrictions.

The showroom also displays an industrial design patent certificate, whose title reads exactly "Aircraft (flying saucer type)":

". Image source: Yiwu Media Center)

Question 6: What does "can go in the water" mean

It refers to take-off and landing capability — it can take off and land on the water surface. It doesn't mean you can drive it like a boat.

The level-five wind resistance rating works the same way: it means that when wind conditions exceed that level, it can't fly. It is not an all-weather device.

Question 7: Why is Yiwu selling this

It's not a coincidence.

In April this year, the two major business segments on the fourth floor of the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center — "IP Trend Goods" and "Smart Technology" — officially opened. The smart technology section is Yiwu's first one-stop procurement hub combining "low-altitude economy plus intelligent robotics plus consumer electronics."

On the drone side it brings together XAG, Autel, EHang, and Zhihang; in the robotics lane it has assembled Keenon, Pudu, AgiBot, and Unitree; in smart consumer devices it has brought in SKG, EZVIZ, and VR Star Space.

In other words, this fourth floor is migrating from "wholesaling small commodities" to "wholesaling smart hardware." The manned saucer's arrival is both an exhibit in that migration and a debut for the low-altitude economy as it tries to step into public view.

Zhihang UAV was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Bao'an, Shenzhen. It holds more than 90 patents and software copyrights, is a national-level "specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative" little giant enterprise and a national high-tech enterprise, and sells its products in nearly 30 countries and regions worldwide.

Finally

Since this manned saucer went on display, it has received more than a dozen groups of Chinese and international buyers per day on average, with a steady stream of price inquiries.

Some joke that people used to come to Yiwu to wholesale socks and toys, and now they come to Yiwu to look at a manned UFO; others call it "essential gear for fishermen" — that association is certainly imaginative.

But to put it plainly: it's an eVTOL, a real product category within the low-altitude economy, not alien technology and not a sci-fi prop. It has been built as a physical object, obtained a special flight permit, and entered the commercial display stage. Its real significance is that it puts the phrase "low-altitude economy" in front of ordinary people for the first time in a concrete, touchable form.

As for the road from "it can fly" to "you can travel in it," there's still quite a long stretch to go.

Data sources and notes

The facts in this article come from a recently circulated social media video and public reports, and the images come from on-site news photographs by the Yiwu Media Center. The event location is the Zhihang UAV showroom on the fourth floor of the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center in Zhejiang; the product specifications are a price of 800,000 yuan, a flight altitude of about 30 meters, 15 minutes of endurance, seating for 1 to 2 passengers, a six-ducted-fan design, amphibious take-off and landing, and level-five wind resistance; the order is a pre-sale agreement signed with Qionghai Sea Parachuting Co., Ltd., comprising 68 two-seat manned versions and 86 static display versions, 154 units in total, for a total of nearly 120 million yuan; the toy remote-controlled saucer costs 268 yuan.

The explanation in this article regarding the composition of the order is a recalculation and clarification based on the public data above, and does not represent any additional disclosure by any ordering party or company. This article has no affiliation, authorization, or endorsement relationship with Zhihang UAV, the Yiwu market, or the related institutions.

Figure Notes

Cover: reuse the already-generated cover-final.png (Yiwu on-site photo as the background with the Chinese headline overlaid).