During the National Day holiday, a wave of cultural and technological enthusiasm surged across the country, with various regions introducing new "cultural tourism + technology" projects and scenarios to bring visitors entirely new experiences. Multi-dimensional technological empowerment is painting a new picture of cultural tourism that is perceivable, touchable, and participatory.
In Guangdong Chimelong Spaceship Park, machines interact with tourists. Image courtesy of Chimelong Group.
Robots are taking up posts and showcasing their talents. Today, when people travel, whether to ancient towns or natural scenic areas, robot performances have become commonplace. Many traditional tourism destinations are creating new appeal for visitors through the addition of technological elements. On October 1, a "Robot Wonder Night" performance was held in Kunming, Yunnan. On stage, agile quadruped robotic dogs delivered a traditional lion dance performance, leaping and bounding with fluid movements; humanoid robots demonstrated martial arts with a strong sense of power; and a robot performing Yunnan-style Dai dance combined ethnic rhythms with intelligent control, creating a vibrant atmosphere. Additionally, robots performed calligraphy on site, delivered amusing stand-up comedy, and sang "Ode to the Motherland" in chorus, drawing rounds of applause from the audience. After the performance, spectators could go on stage to shake hands and converse with the robots up close, attracting many children to come up and try.
Traffic control robot at Hangzhou West Lake Scenic Area. Image source: Hangzhou Traffic Police.
In Guangdong, Canton Tower launched a robot dance show, with embodied robots and robotic dogs conducting coordinated patrols; at Zhuhai Hengqin Chimelong Spaceship Park, robots provide full-journey commentary and even play games with visitors. The traffic control robot at Hangzhou West Lake Scenic Area in Zhejiang can not only take up posts at key intersections but also flexibly deploy traffic based on real-time pedestrian and vehicle flow, providing timely and precise travel services for domestic and international tourists.
Robot dance show at Canton Tower. Image courtesy of Canton Tower.
By reviewing developments at various scenic areas, it can be observed that robots are appearing at tourist sites at a denser rate than in previous years. They are not merely traffic-generating props doing flips on stage, but are directly embedded in the front lines of visitor flow, becoming genuine work partners—some responsible for guided tours and commentary, some providing emotional value through interaction with people, and some taking on the function of order guidance. They have truly become a "new standard" at scenic areas.
Tourism experiences are becoming richer. During the National Day holiday, the museum craze continued to heat up, with major cultural and museum venues digging deep into their collections, using technology to empower traditional culture, and launching diverse exhibitions, performances, and public benefit services. On October 1, the exhibition enhancement work for Pit No. 2 of the Terracotta Warriors at the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum was fully completed and newly opened to the public. In terms of display format, XR (extended reality) scene restoration was arranged in combination with the site space, and dynamic light and shadow projection demonstrations were added within the pit, visualizing abstract military formation arrangements, archaeological research, and site protection achievements. Visitors tour Pit No. 2 of the Terracotta Warriors at the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum. Image courtesy of Zhang Tianzhu.
On the eve of the National Day, the "Famous Temple of the Western Hills, A Thousand Years of Dajue—Dajue Temple Historical and Cultural Exhibition" opened at Beijing Dajue Temple. Digital technology was the biggest highlight of this exhibition. Due to cultural relic protection restrictions, visitors cannot closely examine the Ming Dynasty Twenty Devas colored sculptures in the Mahavira Hall, but the exhibition hall uses video displays and 360-degree digital imagery to fully present the details of this group of Ming Dynasty official-style colored sculptures that blend Han and Tibetan elements. Multimedia interactive displays were set up for over 60 poems and inscriptions by Emperor Qianlong about Dajue Temple, allowing visitors to scroll through the full text, view photos of the actual inscriptions, and see their locations within the temple through the multimedia system, facilitating on-site visits for comparison. The highlight was the dynamic revitalization of "The Painting of Pilgrimage to Miaofeng Mountain." As important historical material for studying Qing Dynasty temple fair culture, the ancient painting was digitally processed, and all the figures in the "Thirteen Banner Drum Troupe" incense ceremony performance in the scroll came to life. Dajue Temple is precisely the starting point of the central route of the ancient incense trail to Miaofeng Mountain. The digital imagery uses the temple as the origin point to illuminate the entire ancient incense trail, tracing the national-level intangible cultural heritage representative project—the Miaofeng Mountain Temple Fair.
The Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an City, Shandong Province, launched the "Rites from the East—Dawenkou Culture Immersive Experience Project." Visitors only need to wear dedicated AI smart glasses to experience exclusive functions such as dynamic scene interpretation and real-time Q&A on cultural knowledge, and can also learn about the ritual and music customs and daily life scenes of ancient ancestors. This not only enhances the touring experience but also supports the living transmission and innovative dissemination of Dawenkou culture.
Touring ancient architecture with Doubao. In Pingyao Ancient City, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, visitors move among the gray bricks and tiles. A tourist pointed their phone camera at the gate tower of the Rishengchang Draft Bank and asked: "How did this draft bank do business back then?" Just seconds later, a well-organized explanation came from the phone—from the capital flows of Shanxi merchant draft banks, to the credit logic of "remittance across the world," to the Chinese character codes used for anti-counterfeiting. The narration was like having a guide well-versed in local chronicles standing right beside you. This "guide" was the Doubao App on the tourist's phone. Tourists use the Doubao App to learn about Shanxi's ancient architecture. Image source: Doubao.
Recently, Doubao announced it had become the official AI commentator for Shanxi cultural tourism, providing professional AI-guided commentary services based on video call and other functions, covering over a hundred popular scenic areas, ancient buildings, and cultural and museum venues in Shanxi, including Yungang Grottoes, Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, Wang Family Compound, Guanque Tower, Xiaoxitian, Shanxi Museum, and Huangcheng Prime Minister's Compound, offering visitors a new smart tourism experience. This is also Doubao's first provincial-level cultural tourism cooperation project. In the past, AI commentary was mostly concentrated inside museums. This cooperation between Doubao and Shanxi cultural tourism authorities represents a leap for AI commentary from enclosed exhibition halls to open, all-domain cultural tourism scenarios.
In recent years, Shanxi has continued to promote digital empowerment of cultural tourism development and continuously optimize visitor experiences. The AI commentary service launched this time is a beneficial exploration of digital-intelligent cultural tourism. On one hand, it provides visitors with diversified commentary options, effectively alleviating the pressure of insufficient supply of professional commentators during holiday peak periods; on the other hand, it vividly showcases Shanxi's rich cultural tourism resources through youthful and modern communication methods, making Sanjin culture perceivable and accessible. To ensure the professionalism and accuracy of the commentary content, the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism coordinated the collection of content materials, gathering official commentary scripts from nearly a hundred scenic areas, completing the collection, organization, and annotation of tens of thousands of pieces of cultural tourism data, and creating more standardized commentary content that better fits Shanxi's local history and culture.
Today, AI is no longer just a Q&A tool on a phone, but has become a real link in the cultural tourism service chain. It can provide tourists with instant information services and also offer immersive experiences blending virtual and real through AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) technologies—at Yungang Grottoes, visitors can point their cameras at the giant Buddha to learn about the clothing patterns and carving techniques of Northern Wei sculptures; at Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, they can ask about the earthquake-resistant principles of Liao Dynasty wooden structures; beneath Guanque Tower, they can hear AI recite "To see a thousand miles further, climb one more storey" and feel the grandeur of the High Tang. Commentary has shifted from one-way broadcasting to an interactive, inquiry-friendly, and personalized companion tour process.