A night view of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality File photo: VCG

Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China has transformed urban landscapes, rivers, and mountain cliffs into giant "screens" that project cultural stories on both sides of the Yangtze River using cutting-edge naked-eye 3D technology, creating an unforgettable immersive night tour. 

"I'm captivated by the city's vibrant night scenery; leaving behind this cruise experience is hard," Kirtan Bhana, director and editor of South Africa's The Diplomatic Society, told the Global Times during the Yangtze and Jialing River night cruise tour in Chongqing.

Denisa Petrilakova, editor of domestic and foreign news at the Czech Media Agency, was also impressed by the unforgettable Two-River Tour experience and told the Global Times that she would recommend Chongqing to Czechs in addition to Beijing and Shanghai. "I was very touched by the night view of the mountain city, which is really special and beautiful."

The light show in the Two-River Tour combines home lighting, road lighting, high-rise building projector lights, embankment lights and ship lights. This intricate interplay of lighting creates a stunning three-dimensional nightscape, where mountains, rivers, bridges, and urban structures merge into a visual symphony.

Infrastructural upgrades

Down the Yangtze River, the night cruise tour in Yichang, Central China's Hubei Province, east of Chongqing, is also filled with impressive technology.

As the cruise ship moves along the Yangtze, it projects lights onto mountains and cityscapes, enhancing the natural and urban surroundings with vibrant cultural displays, Ye Yong, general manager of the Tourism Development Division at the Three Gorges Tourism Group, told the Global Times.

The light show showcases cultural stories, including that of Qu Yuan, a patriotic Chinese poet who died in 278 BC. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated to commemorate his life and death. The light show also features the story of Wang Zhaojun, a famous "political bride" from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD25).

After two phases of construction and upgrades, the giant screen alongside the Yangtze River, measuring about 8 kilometers long, was ready to welcome tourists in July 2022, the Global Times has learned.

In Yichang, the Yangtze River Three Gorges 1, the world's largest pure electric cruise ship, has been in operation to enhance the quality of cruise tours.

"The ship has made touring the Yangtze River a quiet journey without the smell of diesel. The electric ship is charged at the wharf overnight, with electricity generated from the Three Gorges Dam," Ye said.

The Three Gorges Tourism Group is a joint developer of the Yangtze River Three Gorges 1 and is currently the operator of the ship. 

To enhance its services, Chongqing introduced a new-generation high-end cruise ship, which set sail on July 18 of this year and was equipped with advanced technology to offer a more immersive experience.

The cruise ship is designed as a "catamaran," and incorporates a number of high-end technologies in areas such as shock absorption, noise reduction and environmental protection, including railings made from light-guiding glasses. 

Moreover, the cruise ship features a pillar-less lobby and panoramic glass walls, providing a broader view compared to other vessels.

Integration of culture, high-tech

In recent years, China's tourism industry has experienced significant growth, establishing the country as the largest source of international tourists and a major destination for travelers worldwide. The enthusiasm of the Chinese people for cultural tourism consumption is increasing, while the scale of the cultural tourism market continues to expand, and the consumption structure continues to optimize, analysts said.

"Strengthening tourism in China calls for strategic planning, local innovation, and unified efforts from the entire industry," noted Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, during a tourism industry conference on September 11.

China will actively promote the high-quality development of its cultural and tourism industries, aiming to establish itself as a country strong in culture and tourism.

Latest industrial data showed that 70 percent of tourists participate in cultural experience activities during their travels, and nearly 80 percent express a desire to engage in such activities. "We will explore effective mechanisms for integrating culture with science and technology and step up our efforts to foster new forms of cultural business," read the resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in July.

The resolution also said that "we will institute a system of the defining symbols of Chinese culture and refine institutions and mechanisms for promoting the full integration of culture and tourism."

China has a long history and is rich in culture, which will enrich the creation of digital content and boost the digital cultural tourism, Tian Feng, dean of SenseTime's Intelligence Industry Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday. 

Tian noted that SenseTime has already built a library of digital content assets featuring many Chinese cultural monuments and ancient artifacts, utilizing space modeling empowered by artificial intelligence, which will promote the integration and development of digital cultural tourism.

Propelled by advancements in science and technology, innovative formats such as virtual tourism, digital exhibitions, and online performing arts have entered a rapid growth phase, unlocking new avenues for the cultural tourism industry, experts pointed out. 

By the end of 2023, the scale of China's digital cultural tourism market exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($140.9 billion), accounting for more than 30 percent of the entire cultural tourism industry, media reported.

Tourists are now provided with an immersive travel experience made possible through augmented reality (AR) technology, including AR glasses, Chen Xi, vice president of Rokid, a Hangzhou-based AR tech startup, told the Global Times on Friday. 

Chen cited examples of using AR technologies in Shuoxi Lake in East China's Anhui Province and Datang Everbright City in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

By the end of 2023, China had developed 32,024 immersive experience projects, creating nearly 928,000 jobs, with a total output value reaching 193.34 billion yuan. This figure is expected to exceed 240 billion yuan this year, according to a white paper released in June.