Chinese museums use technology for immersive Spring Festival experiences-Xinhua
Chinese museums use technology for immersive Spring Festival experiences-Xinhua
https://english.news.cn/20260222/aad194f7a7bb487b9d3c6071f0593aec/c.html
Publish Date: 2026-02-22 09:18:00
Source Domain: english.news.cn
A visitor tries on a VR headset at the Lingjiatan Site Museum in Hanshan County, Ma’anshan, east China’s Anhui Province, on Dec. 24, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan)
YINCHUAN, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — At the foot of the Helan Mountain in Yinchuan, capital city of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a corridor within the Xixia Imperial Tombs Museum has been transformed into a bustling street scene from a millennium ago during the Spring Festival holiday.
Actors clad in traditional costumes of the Song (960-1279) and Xixia (1038-1227) dynasties greeted tourists, while images of “Flying Apsaras” — celestial figures from ancient murals — danced amidst lighting and mist.
The immersive performance, titled “Xixia Musical Gathering,” is the centerpiece of the museum’s New Year celebrations.
By turning a 300-meter passage into a moving stage, the event recreates vivid scenes of multi-ethnic coexistence and cultural fusion in China around 1,000 years ago, offering visitors a unique “walk-and-watch” experience.
“It felt like a true time-travel experience,” said Wang Fei, a tourist from north China’s Shanxi Province who visited with his family.
Wang noted that his children were thrilled to interact with performers portraying historical characters and try traditional games like “pitch-pot” and archery.
“With technology and cultural activities empowering the museum, history has become vivid and accessible. It allows the younger generation to truly understand fine traditional culture while having fun,” Wang said, adding that the experience made the Spring Festival more meaningful.
Chen Xiaoxu, head of marketing at Xixia Imperial Tombs Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd., said the performance features over 50 professional actors, with costumes and market settings recreated from museum artifacts and historical documents.
“We aim to change the stereotype that the Xixia Imperial Tombs are merely ‘earthen mounds’ and instead, we use immersive experiences to convey the value of the…
