The world's first commercial multimodal large language model (LLM) for cultural tourism, known as BoGuan, has entered broad application in Xi'an, China. Developed by Shaanxi Culture Industry Investment Group (SCG) in partnership with Huawei, China Telecom Shaanxi, and China West Airport Group, the model generates commercial returns by supporting digital IP for intangible cultural heritage, cultural tourism applications, and short drama production. This development injects new momentum into China's heritage preservation initiatives and the cultural tourism industry.
Xi'an, one of China's oldest cities and a popular international tourist destination, is leveraging digital technologies including AI and 5G-A to transform the visitor experience. BoGuan powers an AI travel companion agent that had already been made available to over 4 million users by March 2026. Unveiled in September 2025, BoGuan is China's first industry-specific model dedicated to cultural heritage preservation. It is built on intelligent computing infrastructure and a high-quality dataset of over 1.2 PB, including 31 million images, 4.4 million minutes of video, 2.18 million minutes of audio, 510 3D models, and 960 million pieces of structured text.
The model can generate highly accurate multimodal content, such as museum-quality descriptions of cultural relics. This supports digital relic presentations, the digitalization of traditional craftsmanship, and the creation of digital IP for intangible cultural heritage. For example, dough sculpture artisan Zhang Beiyuan noted that with BoGuan, he can complete a sculpture that previously took two to three months in less than a week. BoGuan also helped create the popular cartoon character Tang Biaobiao, inspired by the stone carvings of the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum. Sales of related digital collectibles and creative products have exceeded CNY2 million.
Beyond heritage preservation, BoGuan has enabled a range of cultural tourism apps, including AI photography and the AI travel companion agent on the GO-SHAANXI app. Visitors can interact with the agent to create and adjust itineraries and receive real-time performance recommendations. The Zhiying Camera mini program offers paid services that integrate user photos with AI-generated historical scenes, allowing visitors to virtually travel back in time. These new consumption options unlock the business value of cultural tourism data. Additionally, SCG uses BoGuan to integrate short drama production with cultural tourism, improving efficiency and quality in Xi'an, a renowned short drama hub.
China Telecom Shaanxi and Huawei have also deployed a 5G-A network based on three component carrier aggregation (3CC) technology at Xi'an's Grand Tang Mall. The network delivers peak uplink and downlink rates of 600 Mbps and 3.5 Gbps, about 10 times faster than common 5G networks. During the 2026 May Day holiday, it supported concurrent access for 23,000 users, ensuring smooth video and social media experiences. Furthermore, 5G-A-powered HD live streaming at the mall has become a key tool for attracting visitors, with average user dwell time nearly doubling and average 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 continues to work with partners to enhance heritage preservation with digital and intelligent technologies, stimulating development within the cultural tourism industry.
