Technology transforms tourist experiences at Mount Wutai

Shanxi World Heritage Site's digital makeover a hit with visitors

At the foot of Mount Wutai, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site that has served as a center of Chinese Buddhism for nearly two millennia, the ancient and the virtual are converging.

Inside a newly opened immersive experience hall, visitors don extended reality (XR) headsets to accomplish in 20 minutes what would normally take days of grueling physical travel. Through high-precision 3D modeling, users fly through seasonal seas of clouds, inspect the intricate timber joints of ancient temples, and virtually scale the sacred mountain's five distinct peaks.