“Want to know the age of this statue but unable to find a Chinese-speaking guide” – this is the regret of many overseas tourists visiting Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. Yingmi Technology, which has long served the National Museum of Chinese Nationalities and the Taihu Lake Scenic Area in Suzhou with its tour guide solutions, is now using its 15 years of industry accumulation and internationally certified technology to embed its solutions into a QR code: Pasted beside the statues on Feilai Peak and the steps of the Medicine Buddha Hall, tourists can scan the code to choose from six languages including English, Japanese and Korean. There is no need to download an APP. The QR code guide system enables tourists to understand the stories behind the thousand-year-old Zen.
I. The Zen Troubles of Lingyin Temple
At the foot of Feilai Peak in the northwest of West Lake, Hangzhou, Lingyin Temple has stood for over 1,600 years, surrounded by incense smoke. The wooden dougong brackets of the Great Buddha Hall still retain the style of the Tang Dynasty. Over 340 statues on Feilai Peak are engraved with Buddhist stories from the Five Dynasties to the Yuan Dynasty. In front of the Buddha statue of the Medicine Buddha in the Medicine Buddha Hall, lotus flowers offered by believers are always placed. Even the Cold Spring Pavilion outside the temple is steeped in the poetic sentiment of “the sound of the spring swallowing the perilous rocks”. This “No. 1 Zen Temple in Southeast China” receives over 5 million global tourists every year However, the Zen spirit was once disrupted by the difficulty of guiding Tours:
1.Multilingual gap: Global pilgrims “Can’t understand the essence of Zen”
Among the visitors to Lingyin Temple, there are Japanese Buddhists holding scriptures, German scholars studying statues, Southeast Asian tourists bringing their families to pray for blessings, and European and American backpackers who want to experience the essence of Zen. However, traditional guided tours only rely on about 20 guides, among whom less than 5 are proficient in both English and Japanese. For the need of minor languages, it is entirely up to “gestures + translation software” to handle emergencies. Master Yongming, the guest master of Lingyin Temple, mentioned this matter with a tone full of helplessness: “Last month, a South Korean tourist paid homage to the Maitreya statue on Feilai Peak for a long time, wanting to know the age when the statue was carved. He asked three staff members, but none of them knew Korean. In the end, he could only search for ‘Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms’ on his mobile phone. The tourist stared at the screen for a long time but still shook his head.”
What is even more heart-wrenching are the pilgrims who speak minority languages. Last autumn, a group of French tourists wanted to learn about the “Twelve Great Vows of the Medicine Buddha”. There was no French guide in the temple, so they could only translate the terms in the Buddhist scriptures sentence by sentence. The tourists were completely confused and could only join their hands in front of the Buddha statue in the end, not even understanding the basic power of the vows.
2. Traditional Guided Tours “Disturb Zen” : The “Noisy Problem” in Ancient Temples
Most of the halls in Lingyin Temple are built along the mountain. The Great Buddha Hall and the Medicine Buddha Hall are not very spacious. During peak season, many teams squeeze into the halls to give explanations, with the sounds of Chinese and English mixed together, even blocking out the chanting of the monks. Aunt Li, the volunteer in charge of guiding inside the hall, said, “Once, an elderly lady wanted to listen quietly to the story of the Medicine Buddha. The explanation from the team sitting next to her was too loud, so she had to move closer to the guide and almost bumped into the offering table.” ” What’s even more troublesome is the paper guidebooks – tourists casually place them on the stone steps after reading them. After being exposed to wind and rain, they become garbage, which is not only environmentally unfriendly but also spoils the tranquility of the temple.
3. Cultural interpretation is “too superficial” : The Zen in the details is “deeply hidden”
Every corner of Lingyin Temple holds its own secrets: Why is the belly of the “Maitreya with a Cloth Bag” in the statues on Feilai Peak open? What is the meaning of the “Nine-Ridge Hip Roof” in the Great Buddha Hall? Which directions do the “Twelve Yaksha Generals” in the Hall of Medicine correspond to? But these Zen details are simply impossible to fully understand without a dedicated person’s explanation. An American tourist wrote in his travelogue: “I spent two hours visiting Lingyin Temple. All I knew was that ‘the Buddha statues are very solemn and the temple is very old’. I didn’t even know that Ji Gong once became a monk here. I felt like I had come in vain.”
4. Equipment adaptation “not too Zen-like” : Traditional audio guides “seem out of place”
Previously, the temple had tried Yingmi’s handheld audio guide. Tourists wore it around their necks, which was out of place with the monks’ robes and the incense burners inside the hall. Some devices need to be charged in advance. Volunteers have to collect dozens of devices every day and are so busy that they have no time to rest. Master Shi Yongming said, “Once, a Japanese monk saw a tourist holding a large audio guide and said with a smile, ‘It’s like bringing a radio to the Zen monastery.’ This statement enlightened us – the tour guide equipment should not disrupt the Zen spirit; it must be ‘light’.”
These problems have draped a thin veil over the thousand-year-old Zen atmosphere of Lingyin Temple. Overseas tourists can see the solemnness and beauty of the Buddha statues, but they cannot understand the Buddhist culture behind them. Even the etiquette of “taking off one’s hat and not stepping on the threshold when entering the hall” has to be repeatedly reminded by volunteers.
Ii. Yingmi’s “QR Code Zen Solution” : Lightweight and suitable for ancient temple scenes
After meeting the demands of Lingyin Temple, Yingmi did not produce “cumbersome hardware” – what the ancient temple wanted was “not disturbing the Zen spirit and ready for use at any time”. The team stayed at Lingyin Temple for 15 days, following Master Shi Yongming around the temple every day: at 5 a.m., they attended the morning service with the monks and recorded the “No. 3 Statue on Feilai Peak, the incense burner in the Medicine Buddha Hall, and the steps of the Great Buddha Hall” that tourists often visited. At noon, I had a vegetarian meal with the volunteers and listened to them talk about the questions that tourists often ask. In the evening, we tested the signal at the Cold Spring Pavilion. We even took into account whether the QR code would be splashed with flowers in the rain and whether the scan was clear under the shade of trees. Finally, we came up with this “lightweight QR code tour guide solution”
1. Scan the code to reach: No need to download, multiple languages are available at will
The QR code tour guide of Yingmi does not require the installation of an APP. Tourists can directly enter the tour guide mini-program by scanning the code with wechat, Alipay or a browser. The interface is extremely simple, with a white background and light brown lines, resembling the Xuan paper Buddhist scriptures in a temple, without any advertisements at all. The mini-program supports six languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, German and French, and is determined based on the composition of visitors to Lingyin Temple.
When tourists choose their native language, they can scan the exclusive QR code again at the corresponding scenic spot to trigger an explanation.
When you scan the QR code of the “Bag of Maitreya” statue on Feilai Peak, you will softly say: “This statue was built during the Five Dynasties period. Maitreya Buddha has his belly open, symbolizing that ‘a big belly can hold all the affairs of the world’, which is an embodiment of the Buddhist concept of ‘tolerance’.”
By scanning the QR code of the Medicine Buddha Hall, an explanation will be given: “Inside the hall, the Medicine Buddha holds a medicine pot, and the twelve medicated generals beside him correspond to the twelve hours, symbolizing ‘protecting all living beings in the twelve hours’.”
A Japanese tourist, Sato, scanned the code and nodded into his phone, saying, “There’s no need to find a guide. You can read it slowly by yourself and listen to the ‘Twelve Great Vows of the Medicine Buddha’ repeatedly. It’s much more convenient than in the temples in Tokyo.”
2. Offline cache: Solving the pain point of “weak signal in deep mountains”
Lingyin Temple is hidden in the valley of Feilai Peak. In some areas, the signal is weak. Yingmi has specially designed an “offline cache” function – after tourists scan the code to enter the mini-program and click on “Cache the explanations of this area”, they can listen even without an Internet connection. Master Shi Yongming tested it: “Near the most remote ‘Li Gong Pagoda’, there was no mobile phone signal, but the cached explanations could still be broadcast. Even the detail that ‘Li Gong was the first abbot of Lingyin Temple’ was not missed.”
The material of the QR code has also been adapted – it is made of waterproof and wear-resistant PVC and pasted on the bluestone slabs beside the scenic spot. It won’t be stained by rain and won’t be damaged when tourists step on it. After a heavy rainstorm, Aunt Li went to check the QR code, wiped the rainwater off the surface, and scanned it. It was still clear: “I was afraid it wouldn’t work if it rained before, but now I’m relieved.” “
3. Zen design: Does not disturb the atmosphere of the ancient temple
In order to fit the Zen spirit of Lingyin Temple, Yingmi has put a lot of thought into the details:
The default volume for explanations is “Soft mode”, and the maximum volume will not exceed the chanting of the monks to avoid disturbing the believers praying in the hall.
The mini-program has added a “Zen music background”. During the intervals of explanations, a faint sound of a guzheng would waft out, like the morning bells and evening drums in a temple.
There are only three operation buttons: “Play/Pause”, “Previous segment/Next Segment”, and “Language Switch”. Even the elderly can easily get started.
A German scholar scanned the code and said, “The interface is very quiet, without any messy buttons. It matches the atmosphere of Lingyin Temple perfectly and is not as noisy as other guided Tours.”
Iii. Content Refinement: Make the explanation “Zen-like and not stiff”
Yingmi knows that the guided tour of Lingyin Temple cannot merely cover “knowledge points”, but must convey “Zen spirit” – it should enable overseas tourists not only to understand “what it is”, but also to understand “why”
1. Integrate “Buddhist Stories” : Bring the Statues to life
The explanation included many “Zen stories” of Lingyin Temple – for instance, when talking about the origin of Feilai Peak, it would say, “Legend has it that the Indian monk Huili came here and said, ‘This is a small ridge of Lingjiu Mountain in Central India. I wonder how he flew here.’ Thus, Feilai Peak got its name.” When talking about the Ji Gong Hall, it is often added that “Ji Gong once became a monk at Lingyin Temple. His shoes and hat were worn out, but he often helped the people treat their illnesses. The Ji Gong Hall was built in the temple to commemorate his spirit of ‘saving the world and helping people’.”
An American tourist, after listening to the story of Ji Gong, clasped his hands together in front of the statue of Ji Gong and said, “So he is such a monk. It’s so interesting. It’s much more vivid than what I read in books.”
2. Interpreting “Cultural Details” : Making Zen “Not Obscure”
For the Buddhist culture that overseas tourists are not familiar with, the explanations will offer “popular interpretations” – for instance, when talking about the “Nine-ridge hip-and-gable roof” of the Great Buddha Hall, it would say, “This roof has nine ridges and is one of the most advanced architectural styles in ancient China, representing ‘the supreme nature of Buddhism’.” When it comes to the “medicine pot” of the Medicine Buddha, it can be explained that “what is contained in the medicine pot is not ordinary medicine, but ‘sweet dew that can eliminate disasters and prolong life’, symbolizing the Buddhist concept of ‘saving the suffering and the suffering’.”
Master Shi Yongming said, “Once, a Southeast Asian tourist, after listening to the explanation of the Medicine Buddha, specially went to buy a lotus lamp and said, ‘Finally, I understand the vow power of the Medicine Buddha and want to pray for my family.’ This is the significance of the explanation.”
3. Respect “religious rituals” : Make Culture “warm”
The explanations will repeatedly remind people of Buddhist etiquette, such as “When entering the hall, step with your left foot first; when leaving the hall, step with your right foot first” and “Do not talk loudly inside the hall.” A South Korean tourist scanned the code and deliberately took off his hat as reminded. He also told the volunteer, “Only after knowing these rules can I enter the hall with peace of mind and not be impolite.”
Iv. Data and Word-of-Mouth: Visible Upgrades in Zen
The QR code tour guide of Yingmi has been in use at Lingyin Temple for six months. The changes are all obvious. It’s not what we said, but the real feedback from the monks and tourists in the temple:
The average stay time of overseas tourists has been extended from 40 minutes to 90 minutes. 40% of the tourists will repeatedly scan the code to listen to the same explanations at the same place, such as the statues on Feilai Peak and the vow power of the Medicine Buddha Hall.
The usage of paper guidebooks has decreased by 80%, the amount of garbage sorting in the temple has also dropped, and the workload of volunteers has been reduced by 30%.
What moved Yingmi the most was that a German Buddhist researcher, after learning about the “Twelve Great Vows of the Medicine Buddha” through a QR code tour guide, specially contacted Lingyin Temple, hoping to carry out the “Sino-German Buddhist Cultural Exchange” project – “This is the power of the transmission of Zen, which can cross languages and countries.” Master Shi Yongming said.
Conclusion: Scan the code to reveal the Zen heart, and let the thousand-year-old culture be passed on “lightly”
One early morning, the Yingmi team saw a Japanese tourist at Lingyin Temple scanning a code for the statues on Feilai Peak. A gentle Japanese explanation was coming from his phone. He nodded as he listened. The sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell on him, blending with the morning bell in the temple, creating an exceptionally quiet atmosphere.
The QR code tour guide made by Yingmi is not a “technology that disturts the essence of Zen”, but a “bridge that conveys the essence of Zen” – it enables Japanese tourists to understand the tolerance of the Maitreya statue, German scholars to understand the power of the Medicine Buddha’s aspiration, and allows global tourists to touch the 1,600-year-old Zen essence of Lingyin Temple while scanning the code.
In the future, Yingmi will continue to optimize this solution – for instance, by adding AR functions, tourists can scan the code to see the “original historical appearance” of the statues. Add more minor languages so that Arab and Russian tourists can also understand the meaning of Zen. After all, the transmission of good Zen spirit should not be blocked by language. Good technology should be like the spring water of Lingyin Temple, gently nourishing every heart that desires to understand Zen.