Case Name: Ningxia, China · Western Xia Mausoleums AR Intelligent Interactive Guide Project

Case Category: Technological Empowerment for Cultural Heritage Preservation

Case Location: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China

Case Applicants: Ningxia Shengtiancai Digital Technology Co., Ltd., Ningxia Tourism Information Center, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Case Overview:

Case Description

As an important UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Western Xia Mausoleums contain rich historical information and the value of the integration of diverse civilizations. However, for a long time, limited by the display bottleneck of the site itself being "rich in cultural significance but lacking engaging presentations", it has been difficult for tourists to intuitively perceive its profound cultural connotation. To break through this predicament, Ningxia Sheng Tiancai Digital Technology Co., Ltd., in collaboration with Ningxia Tourism Information Center and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, jointly developed the "Western Xia Mausoleums AR Intelligent Interactive Guide Project". Centered on the in-depth integration of AI and AR technologies, the project is committed to building a perceptible, conversational and interactive intelligent guide system, enhancing the presentation and dissemination of cultural heritage, and promoting the integrated development of culture and technology. Taking the Western Xia Mausoleums as a pilot, the project explores a new path for the digital protection and communication of large-scale earthen site cultural heritage.

Solutions and Innovation

Following the framework of "technological breakthroughs—system R&D—application demonstration", this case has developed a comprehensive innovative solution. Technically, the case overcomes the application bottleneck of large AI models in the cultural and tourism vertical domain, promoting the leap of large models from "usable" to "user-friendly". At the same time, it enhances AR's ability to understand complex scenarios, achieving a qualitative leap from "seeing clearly" to "understanding thoroughly". At the system level, the project has developed an intelligent assistant-style guidance system for cultural and tourism scenarios, covering multimodal functions such as route planning, personalized recommendations, proactive guidance, intelligent Q&A, scene explanation, and interactive dialogue. It forms a complete technical link of "vertical domain large models—lightweight terminals" and successfully realizes product implementation. At the application level, the project carries out high-standard demonstrations at the Western Xia Mausoleums, forming replicable and promotable technical solutions and business models. The project has also completed data collection and digital storage for 2,000 cultural relics, built a Western Xia cultural and tourism AI large model knowledge base, and produced a number of achievements including papers, reports, standards, and technical application specifications, providing digital and intelligent tool support for Western Xia studies. To address the positioning challenge in weak-texture scenarios, the project adopts dense feature matching technology to improve the accuracy of system pose estimation; to solve the problem of "slow response and rigid tone" in AI Q&A, it introduces Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and dynamic reasoning scheduling technology, realizing a low-latency and highly smooth anthropomorphic interactive experience, truly achieving the leap from "tool" to "assistant".

Social Effects

This case has achieved remarkable results in economic benefits, social impact and industrial demonstration. Economically, it is expected to increase the number of visitors to the Western Xia Mausoleums by 30%, directly creating over 10 million yuan in cultural and tourism income, and driving the growth of output value of related industrial chains such as catering, accommodation and transportation in the surrounding areas by more than 30 million yuan, forming a new profit model integrating cultural tourism and technology. Socially, the project enhances the interpretability and interactivity of cultural heritage through technological means, strengthens public cultural identity, and at the same time attracts college students to participate in technical R&D, cultivating a number of interdisciplinary talents in the digital cultural and museum field, and promoting the construction of a local AI talent ecosystem. Industrially, the project provides a replicable digital guide solution for large-scale site cultural heritage in Northwest China and even the whole country, promotes the transformation of the traditional cultural and tourism industry towards intelligence and digitalization, and becomes a benchmark for regional industrial upgrading.

Support for Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 4 (Quality Education)

SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)

SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)