In recent years, various places in Jiangsu have been vigorously promoting the integration of culture and tourism. Immersive exhibitions and immersive theatrical performances have been actively launched, innovating and enhancing the tourist experience. Touring museums and exhibitions has become an immersive journey where visitors become part of the scenery. In immersive theaters, audiences can experience deep interaction as if they are actors. This allows tourism to truly become a process for people to understand Chinese culture and enhance cultural confidence.
As of now, Jiangsu has five projects selected as the first batch of national smart tourism immersive experience new space cultivation pilot projects, three projects selected as the “5G + smart tourism” application pilot project list, and 32 provincial-level smart tourist attractions have been built, providing strong support for building a strong tourism province and creating an important world tourism destination. How does immersive cultural tourism in “Water-Rhyme Jiangsu” attract tourists and audiences and lead the new trend of cultural tourism? Let’s explore with this issue of Jiangsu Cultural Tourism Headlines.
With the wide application of digital technology, the exhibition methods of major museums and exhibition halls in Jiangsu are also advancing with the times. Many exhibition halls have innovated by applying modern display technologies to create immersive exhibitions. Traditional models such as guided tours, static object displays, and text introductions have been broken. The combination of sound, light, electricity, and shadow with physical objects brings cultural relics and history to life.
At the Yangzhou Grand Canal Museum in China, one of the first batch of national smart tourism immersive experience new spaces, tourists can walk into the “5G Grand Canal Immersive Experience Hall” and travel through 17 canal cities in one take. They can feel the ancient prosperity of different canal cities among the antique buildings and shops. The integration of cultural relics and high technology, in the form of naked-eye 3D, uses technologies such as “5G + VR” panoramic view, multimedia interaction, and augmented reality to restore history in real proportions and show the local conditions and prosperous scenes on both sides of the Grand Canal.
Similarly, as one of the first batch of national smart tourism immersive experience new spaces, Suzhou Bay Digital Art Museum shows “wisdom” in many details. In the “Perceiving Suzhou” section of the digital art exhibition, an 8K screen restores the Prosperous Suzhou Picture, which is astonishing. Through the control panel, the painting can be enlarged to understand the dynamic details of the work, allowing tourists to be immersed in it.
Inside the Nanjing Jiangning Weaving Museum, it is also full of wonderful things. Centered around the classic IP “Dream of the Red Chamber”, “Grand Dream · Red Chamber” relies on the original site of Cao Xueqin’s birthplace, the Jiangning Weaving Museum. It brings together various forms such as digital art, dance performances, interactive art, and installation art, realizing an integrated experience new model of immersive gameplay, digital technology, and artistic expression for the first time. It has sparked a viewing craze just after its launch in the summer vacation.
In addition to immersive exhibitions, immersive theatrical performances, immersive night tours and other cultural tourism projects launched in various places in Jiangsu have frequently become popular and helped the atmosphere continue to rise.
As one of the first batch of national smart tourism immersive experience new spaces, the Nianhua Bay scenic area at night brings a brand new experience to tourists with digital technology. At the entrance to the park, lasers and fog fountains combine to form a time tunnel. In the “Dream Back to Tang Sakura” metaverse experience in Luming Valley, tourists can wear MR glasses and interact with small deer, cherry blossoms and other elements in the scene. The nighttime immersive characteristic performance “Nianhua Smile” integrates elements such as performers, audiences, music, light and shadow, and dynamic sculptures with the architectural style of Tang and Song dynasties and the water town garden landscape, refreshing tourists.
Making performing arts IP interact with scenic tourism, Nianhua Bay is not the only one. At night, the ancient city of Suzhou bids farewell to the hustle and bustle of tourists during the day. As part of “Night Tour of Gusu”, “Inquiring Elegance in Humble Administrator’s Garden” incorporates traditional Chinese cultural images. Through sound, light, and electricity, the pavilions and towers in the garden are reconstructed, and intangible cultural heritage elements such as Kunqu Opera and Suzhou embroidery are introduced, fully mobilizing the senses of viewers. In the blending of scenery and environment, tourists can resonate with the ancients across time and space and immerse themselves in experiencing the elegance of the ancients.
In Yancheng, using immersive performances to drive the integration of culture and tourism has become a consensus. The Dutch Flower Sea scenic area in Dafeng District, Yancheng has transformed from a sightseeing scenic area to a leisure and vacation scenic area with the live-action performance “Only Love · Drama Fantasy City”. Xixi Ancient Town in Dongtai City is the source of the national intangible cultural heritage “The Legend of Dong Yong”. It has opened up the tourism market with three live-action performances “Seeking Immortality”, “Fairy Fate”, and “Fan Zhongyan”. Jianhu County has created a large-scale live-action performance “Happiness in the Small Town”, making the brand of “Huai Opera Town” in Jiulongkou a highlight of local cultural tourism.
To create high-quality immersive scenes, unique IPs with high adaptability should be created according to local culture and historical endowments. The Slender West Lake scenic area in Yangzhou, one of the first batch of national smart tourism immersive experience new spaces, chooses Tang poetry as the immersive experience theme and creates the large-scale immersive night tour “Recalling Yangzhou in the Bright Moonlight of February”. On Chunbo Bridge, “Li Bai” bids farewell to his good friend “Meng Haoran”; under the Wuting Bridge, “Zhang Ruoxu” stands on the bow of the boat and recites “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”… In the first half of this year, the Slender West Lake received a total of 4.39 million tourists, and realized tourism revenue of over 300 million yuan, with year-on-year growth of 10% and 12% respectively. The project has driven the popularity of the scenic area and surrounding resorts.
“Viewers” become “participants”, and the novel experience form immerses the audience and makes them feel the millennium water town culture. In Zhouzhuang Ancient Town, a unit of the “5G + smart tourism” application pilot project, the performing arts project “Only This Zhouzhuang” covers one core performing arts drama, N types of interactive performances and experience consumption, and N types of IP derivatives. At the beginning of the performance, the audience enters with lanterns. Many NPCs and dragon dances lead the audience into the bustling night market and jointly participate in the past when the Song people “Zhou He” recalls the Lantern Festival in Bianjing. This allows tourists to better perceive the memory of Zhouzhuang, trace historical context, and feel humanistic charm during the viewing process.
When night falls, an activated prosperous picture of Pengcheng in the Song Dynasty unfolds slowly along the 3.3-kilometer route. Tourists board the cruise ship and follow in the footsteps of the leading actor “Su Shi”. They visit scenic spots such as Su Gong Tower and Yunhui Bridge in turn and listen to historical songs such as “Scenic Views of Rivers and Mountains”, “Crane Dance for a Thousand Years”, and “Long Song of Pengcheng”. They immerse themselves in experiencing the legendary story of Su Shi, a literary giant of the Song Dynasty. In Xuzhou Yunlong Lake Scenic Area, the large-scale live-action performance “Pengcheng Flourishing Age” has attracted batches of tourists.
Taking advantage of the popularity of “Black Myth: Wukong”, during the “National Day” holiday this year, Lianyungang Huaguo Mountain Scenic Area, a unit of the “5G + smart tourism” application pilot project, deeply explored the Journey to the West culture and launched various immersive performances. In Shuiliandong Square and Seventy-two Caves, the live-action interactive interpretations of Journey to the West such as “Peach Banquet in Huaguo Mountain”, “Accidentally Entering Pansi Cave”, and “Borrowing the Banana Fan Three Times” vividly reproduce classic stories, making tourists feel as if they are on that legendary journey to obtain scriptures.
In the next step, the cultural tourism system of Jiangsu will implement the spirit of the provincial conference on high-quality tourism development. It will take the development of smart tourism as the forerunner and new track for promoting high-quality tourism development and seizing the future commanding heights. It will cultivate and develop diverse new forms, new products, and new scenarios of tourism to better meet people’s new needs for quality life and create a vivid picture of “Water-Rhyme Jiangsu” in the new era.