GUIYANG, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Inside the Zunyi Meeting memorial museum's exhibition hall, visitors are instantly plunged into a Long March battlefield scene after putting on lightweight virtual reality (VR) headsets, feeling as if they are surging across the Xiangjiang River under enemy fire.
Rather than observing history from a distance, they are placed inside it, with smoke filling the horizon, shells churning the water, and the voices of soldiers echoing through the simulated battlefield.
The immersive experience at the museum in Zunyi City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, is part of a broader push across China to use cutting-edge digital technology to preserve and revitalize Long March sites, as this year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the expedition.
The Long March, a 12,500-kilometer military odyssey from 1934 to 1936, preserved the revolutionary forces and gave the Communist Party of China a new foothold to carry the revolution to victory. Today, sites along the route serve as patriotic education centers. As younger visitors seek more interactive experiences, the museums and memorial halls are turning to digital technology to bring static exhibits to life.
The Zunyi Meeting memorial museum is one such example, featuring a VR experience system. By digitally reconstructing more than 1,000 precious artifacts and using 3D modeling and real-time rendering, it presents panoramic recreations of pivotal moments from the march, including the Battle of the Xiangjiang River.
The technology also serves a preservation purpose. Faded manuscripts and rusted weapons have been converted, through high-precision 3D scanning, into digital archives. To date, the museum has completed 3D scans of 172 artifacts, built digital records for 1,600 two-dimensional items and preserved 8,600 pages of digital artifact archives, with about 80 percent of its collection now capable of interactive digital display.
"It narrows the distance between artifacts and visitors," said Huang Chao, deputy director of the information technology department at the museum.
The impact goes beyond preservation. "Audio-visual and lighting technologies have turned one-way explanations into immersive experiences that move some visitors to tears," said Hong Min, who oversees public engagement at the museum.
Beyond physical venues, a 5G-powered cloud exhibition hall allows users to explore more than a dozen revolutionary heritage sites and thousands of artifacts through a smartphone mini-program, complete with multi-version audio guides and the ability to zoom in on artifact details.
Similar efforts are underway in other parts of the country. In southwest China's Sichuan Province, another key region along the trail, local authorities have built a database containing more than one million pages of archives, alongside a geographic information system covering the Sichuan section of the route.
At a memorial hall in Luding County, visitors wearing VR headsets can virtually step onto the iron chains of the Luding Bridge, recreating the pivotal 1935 battle in which Red Army soldiers crossed it under fire.
"We use VR, digital twin and spatial positioning technologies to engage multiple senses, bringing visitors back to those revolutionary years," said Qu Yongfan, head of the interactive display project, noting that this immersive approach complements traditional static displays and historical documents.
China has been encouraging these local efforts. The National Cultural Heritage Administration has called on 15 provincial-level regions along the Long March route to coordinate the protection, management and use of related cultural relics, with an emphasis on promoting the campaign's spirit. Across the route, museums and memorial sites are increasingly turning to immersive technologies to bring those relics and stories to life.
"We hope to break the boundaries of time and space through technology, making the Long March spirit tangible and accessible, especially for young people," said Wang Zhi'ou, chief designer of the Guizhou Long March Culture Digital Art Museum in Guiyang, the provincial capital. ■
