On September 10, during the 2026 CIFTIS, Haidian District launched the “Digital Tour of Millennium-Old Gardens” supporting cultural tourism inspection route. Attending guests successively visited the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone Exhibition Center, the Three Hills and Five Gardens Cultural and Arts Center, and other locations, completing a journey from technology to cultural heritage within a half-day itinerary.

The first stop of the inspection tour was set at the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone Exhibition Center. In March 2009, the State Council approved the construction of the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone. In 2010, Beijing decided to build the exhibition center as a public welfare service platform for the demonstration and application of Zhongguancun sci-tech innovation achievements and their transformation. Today, the digital service innovations that have drawn much attention at CIFTIS have long been implemented here as tangible and delightful experiences. In front of exhibition items such as digital sand tables, AI healthcare, and embodied intelligence, members of the inspection delegation frequently paused, some leaning over to operate, others raising their phones to record — technology has become an interactive and perceptible scenario.

“We chose this route because it has both technology and cultural content”, said Xie Juan, a member of the inspection delegation from Shaanxi, after the visit. “First seeing how digital technology lands, then seeing how it serves cultural expression — this combination is very inspiring for prefecture-level cities looking to upgrade cultural tourism services. It was truly stunning. Our technology has developed to this extent, exceeding expectations”.

Exiting the exhibition center, not far away stands the Three Hills and Five Gardens Cultural and Arts Center, with a building area of 21,200 square meters, its outdoor space blending seamlessly with Haidian Park. It is an important component of Haidian District's “Changchun New Garden” sci-tech and cultural agglomeration area, and is also interconnected with the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone Exhibition Center and the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center, becoming a “city reception hall” integrating cultural heritage protection, frontier sci-tech releases, academic research exchanges, and natural ecological environment. Stepping into the center, the cultural heritage of Qing Dynasty gardens meets contemporary digital expression head-on. On the panoramic screen, “Flying Over the Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace” brings the audience into dynamically curved and surround imagery. The project takes the “Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace” from the ninth year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign as its blueprint, integrating precious historical documents such as the Yangshi Lei architectural drawings, and restoring the original appearance of the buildings and gardens with high precision through digital technology. Mr. Yan, a member of the inspection delegation from Tianjin, removed his XR device and said, “Previously, viewing the Old Summer Palace meant looking at drawings and restoration models. Now it feels like actually walking inside — even the reflections of the corridor bridges are visible”. An on-site docent introduced that many visitors say after experiencing it that they never knew history could “come alive” like this. “What we do is not simple video playback, but rigorous digital restoration based on extensive historical materials, ensuring every building is traceable and verifiable”.

The Three Hills and Five Gardens Cultural and Arts Center also launched debut achievements such as the “Three Hills and Five Gardens Spatiotemporal Digital Sandbox”, allowing the spatial and temporal patterns of imperial gardens to gain entirely new presentation in the digital dimension. It is not only Haidian's cultural landmark, but also the confidence behind China's cultural tourism services stepping onto the world stage at CIFTIS. From digital innovation to cultural heritage, Haidian is using culture as a bridge, presenting a new “technology+cultural heritage” calling card on the open platform of CIFTIS.