As Arthur took off his headset at an extended reality (XR) cinema in the ancient city of Xi'an, the international student from Turkmenistan was still immersed in the world he had just entered.
"It's completely different from conventional films," he said. "The images surround you 360 degrees, and you can choose where you want to look."
Arthur had just seen "Xuanzang and Kucha," an XR film showing at the Boundless XR Cinema operated by XiYing Group, not far from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
The film, which has been officially licensed by the China Film Administration (CFA), opens to the public on May 1. More than 1,000 years ago, the monk Xuanzang returned to Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty after his journey to India and led the construction of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda to preserve Buddhist scriptures and statues. Now, his legendary journey to the west is retold through XR technology.
Unlike conventional cinemas where viewers sit facing a fixed screen, XR production creates a 360-degree narrative space with immersive images, spatial sound, and virtual scenes. Viewers don't just witness Xuanzang's journey, but feel as if they're inside the film and journeying with him.
The cinema also differs from the typical movie-going experience. There's no giant screen. Instead, the theater is equipped with over 40 seats, each equipped with a headset and capable of playing the film independently.
As inbound tourism increases, more and more technology-based products are being designed with international tourists in mind, making it easier for them to enjoy cultural experiences.
"XR technology brings more than just visual spectacle to the world of cinema," said Wang Jixuan, director of the management office of the Xi'an XR Film Industry Base. "It expands storytelling through space-time narratives and breaks the 'fourth wall' between the audience and the image."
For Xi'an, one of China's ancient capitals for 13 dynasties and home to the Terracotta Warriors, such experiments mark a shift in how historical culture is introduced to visitors. The city has long attracted tourists with its Terracotta Warriors, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and its ancient city walls. Now, Xi'an is leveraging digital technology to transform cultural heritage from something to be viewed into something to be entered, interacted with, and experienced firsthand.
In "The Great Qin," a popular theater production themed around Qin culture inspired by a family letter written on a wooden plank found in the tomb of Shuihudi Qin in Yunmeng, smart translation glasses powered by an artificial intelligence (AI)-based interpretation platform began testing on May 1.
As actors speak on stage, subtitles appear before the audience almost instantaneously, with pauses kept undetectable by the human eye. The test device currently supports English translation and Chinese subtitles for the hearing-impaired. It will support English, Russian, French, Japanese, and Korean in the future.
Since its premiere in September 2024, "The Great Qin" has held more than 800 performances, with attendance consistently exceeding 95 percent. Through the story of Heifu, a Qin warrior, the show depicts the historic unification of the six kingdoms by the State of Qin.
Xi'an's efforts are part of a broader trend across China.
In 2024, China launched 42 new smart tourism immersive experience spaces to explore new forms of tourism products shaped by digital technology.
In recent years, China has introduced a series of policies to support the application of digital technology in culture and tourism, encouraging the integrated development of digital performances, digital art, and immersive experiences.
Deng Ning, a senior researcher at Beijing International Studies University, noted that cultural digitization and the integration of culture and tourism have entered a stage of accelerated development. The next step, Deng said, is to move beyond fragmented and localized experiments and adopt a more systematic approach that coordinates technological innovation, data governance, and product supply, thus creating a more seamless full-chain development pattern.
