Doubao Becomes Official AI Interpreter for Shanxi Cultural Tourism Across 100-Plus Sites
Doubao is now the official AI interpreter for Shanxi cultural tourism, offering real-time explanations at more than 100 scenic areas via the Douyin App's video call function.
Doubao (豆包), ByteDance's AI assistant, has been designated the official AI interpreter for Shanxi cultural tourism, covering more than 100 scenic areas, ancient buildings, and museums. Partner sites include Yungang Grottoes, Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, and Xiaoxitian. The partnership is delivered through the Douyin App's video call function: visitors point their phone camera at buildings, colored sculptures, or murals to receive real-time explanations and can ask follow-up questions about specific details. When a live video call is not convenient, users may upload photos to query Doubao instead.
More than 100 participating scenic areas have installed dedicated posters with QR codes that visitors can scan to unlock additional video call time. To accompany the rollout, Doubao released a short film titled "Strolling Through Shanxi with Doubao," featuring Shanxi-born filmmaker Jia Zhangke walking through Pingyao Ancient City and conversing with the AI about architectural history and his own creative ideas.
The campaign positions Doubao as an on-site cultural guide at scale, applying conversational AI to heritage interpretation across an entire province. China's cultural-tourism sector has increasingly sought technology-driven visitor engagement, and the integration of multimodal AI — capable of reading visual environments rather than relying on pre-written audio guides — marks a practical step beyond QR-code-linked text or audio content. The Jia Zhangke short film adds a layer of cultural credibility by anchoring the technology to a figure strongly associated with Shanxi's landscape and history.
