The world’s first commercial multimodal large language model (LLM) for cultural tourism, known as BoGuan, has entered broad application in Xi’an, China, according to an announcement from Shaanxi Culture Industry Investment Group (SCG) and partners including Huawei, China Telecom Shaanxi, and China West Airport Group. The model is generating commercial returns by supporting digital IP creation for intangible cultural heritage, developing cultural tourism applications, and improving short drama production, injecting new momentum into China’s heritage preservation and tourism industry.
Xi’an, one of China’s oldest and most popular tourist destinations, is leveraging BoGuan to enhance visitor experiences. By March 2026, an AI travel companion agent powered by the model had already served over 4 million users. The model was first unveiled in September 2025 by SCG and Huawei, built on intelligent computing infrastructure and a dataset exceeding 1.2 PB, including 31 million images, 4.4 million minutes of video, and 960 million pieces of structured text.
BoGuan’s ability to generate highly accurate multimodal content, such as museum-quality depictions of cultural relics, enables digital relic presentations, preservation of traditional craftsmanship, and creation of digital IP for intangible heritage. Zhang Beiyuan, a dough sculpture artisan, noted that the model reduces the time to complete a sculpture from months to less than a week. The model has also been used to create digital IP like Tang Biaobiao, a cartoon character integrating local heritage with stone carvings from the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum. Sales of related digital collectibles and creative products have exceeded CNY 2 million.
Beyond preservation, BoGuan powers cultural tourism apps such as AI photography and the AI travel companion. Visitors can interact with the agent on the GO-SHAANXI app to create itineraries and receive real-time attraction recommendations. The Zhiying Camera mini program offers paid services that blend user photos with AI-generated historical scenes, allowing visitors to ‘travel back to ancient times.’ These services unlock business value from cultural tourism data. Additionally, SCG uses BoGuan to integrate short drama production with cultural tourism, improving efficiency and quality in Xi’an, a known short drama hub.
To support digital tourism, China Telecom Shaanxi and Huawei deployed a 5G-A network at Xi’an’s Grand Tang Mall, based on three component carrier aggregation technology. The network delivers peak uplink and downlink rates of 600 Mbps and 3.5 Gbps, about 10 times faster than common 5G. During the 2026 May Day holiday, it supported 23,000 concurrent users, ensuring smooth video and social media experiences. 5G-A-powered HD live streaming at the mall has become a key attraction, with average user dwell time nearly doubling and transaction value increasing by 62%.
Edric Chu, General Manager of Huawei’s Shaanxi Rep Office, stated, ‘Artificial intelligence is not simply a stack of technologies. It has become a key enabler that can activate thousands of years of cultural heritage, reshape travel experiences, and inject new momentum into the industry.’ Huawei will continue collaborating with partners to enhance cultural heritage preservation with digital and intelligent technologies.
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