BEIJING, Nov 2 — Dozens of robots took on more than 3,000 steps up one of China’s most famous peaks Monday, carrying eggs and watermelons in a race organisers billed as a test of real-world machine endurance, state media showed.

For hundreds of years, Mount Tai — the tallest peak in China’s eastern Shandong province — was an important pilgrimage for Chinese emperors and features prominently in Chinese mythology.

But the rugged terrain would prove a stern test for some competitors. One humanoid robot wearing a bandana collapsed in a heap on the cobbled route before engineers rushed in to repair it, while another tumbled down a flight of stairs and came to rest beside a rubbish bin.

The Unesco World Heritage site hosted technologies of the future as part of a new World Mountain Robot Challenge, footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed.