The ancient city of Tianshui, located in the southeast of Gansu Province, is a thousand-year-old crucial town on the Silk Road. The streets and alleys paved with bluestone slabs wind their way, and the old brick and timber residences from the Ming and Qing dynasties are scattered here and there. The imprint of Fuxi culture is hidden in every brick carving and door lintel. Yearly, thousands of tourists come here to trace the cultural heritage of the “Hometown of Xi Huang” and experience the unique charm of the ancient city in the northwest. Just before April 2025, tourists who came here often said they were “perplexed”: if they wanted to learn about the history of the old house, they had to wait for a human tour guide to be arranged. Foreign tourists stared at the plaque of “Fuxi Temple” for a long time but still couldn’t identify the meaning of the name. The elderly person who was strolling in the group was nearly to comprehend the meaning of the brick carvings when the group was already advising him to visit the next stop. It was not till the Yingmi M7 neckle-mounted automatic sensor tour guide device was launched that all these difficulties were addressed. Now, tourists can wear the light-weight tour guide machine and listen to any place they go. The stories of the ancient city flow along with the explanations, and the thousand-year-old cultural heritage comes alive.
I.The “old problem” of leading Tours in Tianshui Ancient City: The excellent charm can not be passed on to the heart
Tianshui Ancient Town is no common visitor attraction. Its charm lies in the “slow stroll and mindful appreciation”– the beginning of an alley, the owner of an old house, and the meaning of a brick carving all need to be listened to gradually and observed carefully. However, the traditional way of leading Tours has purposely “concealed” these valuable cultural details, leaving tourists “seeing the exhilaration but not recognizing the significance”.
1.Hand-operated descriptions are “insufficient”, and during peak season, individuals have to wait in line for half a day
There are 12 core seeing points in Tianshui Ancient City: Fuxi Temple, Hu Family Ancient Residences, Wenchang Pavilion, North and South Houses, etc. Each point requires a thorough explanation of its historical background and cultural connotation. During the peak visitor season, the daily reception capacity can surpass 8,000 individuals, but the scenic area only has 15 full-time tour guides, who can lead at most 5 groups a day. A lot of tourists can only “wander around aimlessly” on their own.
Sister Li, who was in charge, remembers it extremely clearly: “Last May Day, a family brought their elderly to the Fuxi Temple, intending to hear the legend of ‘Fuxi drawing the Hexagrams’. They queued for an hour before obtaining the explanation. The elderly man’s legs were so sore from standing that he had to catch a bus again before completing. Before leaving, he said,’ Such a wonderful story. It’s such a pity not to hear everything.'”” What’s even more irritating is the momentary visitors. Without making an appointment beforehand, they can’t discover a guide and can only take pictures of the ancient buildings. They don’t even understand the meaning of the brick carvings in the Hu Family Ancient Residences.
2.Clarifying “incoherence”, cultural memory is fragmented
The streets and alleys in the ancient city are primarily laid out in a “spider web” style. When tourists follow the tour guides, they often have to turn from one alley to another. Traditional explanations either rely on the guides manually switching tools or start over after reaching new scenic spots. For example, when walking from “Hu Family Ancient Residence” to “Wenchang Pavilion”, the guide has to turn off the tools at the previous point first and then activate the new one. There is always a “gap” in between. Occasionally, when the tools is not effectively adjusted, tourists are still listening to the content about the ancient houses when they reach the Wenchang Pavilion, leaving them completely perplexed.
Once when I was leading a student group on a tour, when we reached the wooden carvings in front of the “North and South Houses”, the tools was still telling the history of the Hu family. The students asked, “Educator, why are you still discussing the old Hu family?” Sister Li could only awkwardly apologize for the debugging. “Originally, the history of the ancient city was continuous. With such a break, children simply can’t remember the cause and effect before and after, let alone understand the cultural connotations.” ”
3.Multilingual “bottleneck”, overseas visitors understand the views but not the “history”.
With the internationalization of Tianshui’s cultural tourism, the number of overseas visitors to the ancient city has been boosting year by year. The proportion of tourists from Japan, South Korea, Europe and America has reached 12%. Traditional guided Tours can only provide basic Chinese and English manuals. Manual multilingual explanations need to be booked three days in advance and only cover English and Japanese. Many overseas tourists, staring at the plaque of the “Fuxi Temple”, were left sighing and wanting to learn about the influence of Fuxi culture on traditional Chinese culture. However, due to the language barrier, they could only take images and leave.
There was once a French couple who stuck around for a long time in front of the brick carvings in the Hu family Ancient Residence. They battled to learn the meaning of “Fu Lu Shou” with translation software. Eventually, the staff gave a rough explanation in basic English. Although the couple nodded in appreciation, their eyes couldn’t conceal their regret. “We want overseas tourists to understand the thousand-year-old cultural heritage of Tianshui, but due to the language barrier, no matter how good the story is, it cannot be passed on.”” Old Chen, the operation manager of the ancient city, said helplessly.
II.Yingmi M7: Damaging the Deadlock with “Smart Sensing” to Make Ancient City Explanations More interesting.
After learning about the pain points of Tianshui Ancient City, Yingmi did not merely advertise general tools. Instead, she sent a technical team to remain on-site for five days: following tourists throughout the whole trip and videotaping the frequently asked questions. Check the signal at each core scenic spot (especially in areas with weak signals such as deep alleys and inside old residences); After examining the multilingual needs, a remedy focused on the M7 neckle-mounted automated sensing tour guide system was ultimately personalized– from “automated triggering” to “multilingual adaptation”, every function specifically satisfies the needs of the ancient city’s cultural tourism.
1.RFID automated sensing: Simply chat as you go, no requirement to press by hand.
The most unexpected attribute of the M7 for tourists is its “seamless trigger” function– it embraces innovative RFID modulation innovation. The technical team has installed signal transmitters in 12 core scenic spots and 20 characteristic alleys in Tianshui Ancient City. When tourists put on the tour guide device and approach within a series of 0.5 to 40 meters, the device will automatically identify the placement and start the explanation without any hand-operated procedure.
When you reach the “Xian Tian Hall” of the Fuxi Temple, the tour guide automatically sounds: “The Xian Tian Hall you see now is the core structure of the Fuxi temple. The statuary of Fuxi enshrined inside is 3 meters high and holds the image of bagua. It is said that Fuxi observed the celestial phenomena and examined the geography here, developed the eight trigrams, and launched the origin of Chinese people …”; Entering the “Five Blessings Hall” of the Hu Family Ancient House, the explanation switches to: “The brick carvings in this area are absolutely special. The pattern of ‘Five Blessings Arrive at the Door’ on the lintel corresponds respectively to longevity, wealth, wellness, virtue and goodness, which is a normal cultural sign of the northwest houses during the Ming and Qing Dynasties …”.
To adjust to the intricate environment of the ancient city, the technical team has also optimized the signal transmitter: it supports 16 signal stamina level adjustments, and the sensing is accurate even in the deep alleys and dark corners of old residences. The transmitter weighs only 27 grams and is about the size of a hand. It can be placed next to a scenic place sign without keeping an eye out of area. It is also powered by a lithium battery and can last for one year on a solitary charge, removing the need for frequent replacement and saving a lot of difficulty. Sister Li said, “Nowadays, tourists can simply discover by themselves. The tour guide equipments follow the actions and describe. Both the elderly and youngsters can use them. No person asks ‘How to change the content’ anymore.”.
2.Multiple languages + 9,999 pre-stored segments: Overseas visitors can also understand the cultural heritage of the ancient city.
In action to internationalization needs, Yingmi has personalized 8 languages (English, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Arabic) for the M7 system, and also supports pre-storing 9,999 segments of explanation content. The explanations for each language are improved by specialist interpreters in combination with the cognitive practices of overseas target markets. For example, when describing the “Fuxi Eight Trigrams” to European and American tourists, they would include, “This ancient symbol system, comparable to the Western concept of astrology, is an early exploration of the laws of the universe by humans,” to help them understand promptly. When presenting the “Hu Family Ancient Residences” to Japanese and South Korean tourists, the Japanese version will contrast “the similarities and differences between the machiya design in Kyoto, Japan and the houses in northwest China”, evoking cultural resonance.
The tour guide device also supports “one-click language switching”, accompanied by a language prompt tone. Tourists can switch from Chinese to the wanted language by pushing the “language trick” on the body. Pierre, a traveler from France, after listening to the explanation of the Fuxi Temple in French, specially discovered the staff and said, “In the past, when I came to ancient Chinese cities, I could only see the design. This time, I can understand the story of ‘Fuxi drawing the Hexagrams’ and also learn about its influence on the I Ching. This experience is so valuable.”.
Now, the complaint rate of overseas tourists to Tianshui Ancient City has dropped from 35% to 6%. Many foreign tourists have shared their experiences of “visiting Tianshui Ancient City with M7 listening to explanations” on social media platforms, which has attracted more global exchange teams to the scenic area.
3.Long battery life + anti-interference: Clear listening even when there are many people, and the device can be used all day long without shutting down.
The streets and alleys of Tianshui Ancient City are narrow. During peak season, there are a large number of tourists, and traditional tools is prone to “crosstalk”. The M7 adopts a 2.4 GHz high-frequency signal and is integrated with digital coding area recognition technology, which can properly withstand interference from cellphones and other electronic gadgets. Even if loads of individuals are seeing in the same alley at the same time, each person’s guide device can plainly play the matching content without blending noises.
The battery life of the device is also extremely outstanding: it is furnished with an 800mAh lithium battery, which can function constantly for up to 16 hours, offering a longer standby time, which is sufficient for tourists to “wander from morning till evening”. When, Mr. Wang, a visitor, visited from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. His tour guide still had 30% battery left and didn’t need to be charged in the middle. Mr. Wang said, “I was originally fretted that the tools would lack power, but I didn’t expect it to work after a whole day of surfing. I also listened to the brick carving explanation three times in the middle. It was very practical.”.
The tour guide machine weighs only 50 grams and adopts a neck-hanging design. Wearing it around the neck is like carrying a light little accessory, and you won’t feel weary even after a whole day of surfing. The body of the machine is made of wear-resistant material. Even if it periodically touches the wall surface or door framework, it is challenging to be damaged. The scenic area has used it for half a year and has not experienced a single breakdown.
Iii. Implementation Accomplishments: New Changes in Cultural Tourism in Tianshui Ancient City.
The Yingmi M7 self-service tour guide tools has been in place in Tianshui Ancient Town for half a year. It has produced not only an adjustment in the “means of explanation”, but also a jump in the “result of cultural circulation”. These changes are concealed in the responses of tourists and also written in the operation data of the scenic area.
1.Tourists’ experiences advance from “shallow to deep”, leaving a more extensive cultural memory.
The scenic area performed a study: Among the tourists who used the M7 to listen to the explanations, the proportion of those who could retell understanding points such as “the cultural connotation of Fuxi” and “the meaning of brick carvings in Hu Family Ancient Residences” was 55% greater than that of traditional explanations. The typical stay time of tourists has been prolonged from 2 hours to 3.8 hours, and the proportion of tourists who have “in-depth visits” (covering more than 8 scenic spots) has increased from 38% to 78%.
An old tourist gave feedback: “When I visited in a tour group in the past, I didn’t catch many information clearly. This time, using the tour guide, I listened slowly to the story of ‘Fuxi drawing the Hexagrams’, and only then did I realize that Tianshui is one of the sources of Chinese civilization. This understanding is deeper than looking at the text cards.”” The feedback from the student group was also excellent. The children, putting on tour guides, would proactively ask, “What do the patterns on the brick carvings mean?” After the scenic tour, they could also share the stories of the ancient city with their teachers.
2.The operation and management have been “simplified from complex”, reducing costs by 45%.
On the operational side, M7 has significantly improved the performance of the tour guide management in Tianshui Ancient City: there is no need to arrange staff to collaborate teams for “off-peak visits”, the demand for hand-operated explanations has been reduced by 45%, and the scenic area can also focus more on cultural exploration. The tools is easy to keep. The signal transmitter needs to have its battery replaced annually. The tour guide machine uses a “one charger for ten battery chargers”, and all ten gadgets can be totally charged in one hour without the need for dedicated guidance.
“Before, during peak seasons, we had to employ short-term tour guides, which cost numerous thousand yuan a day. Now, that’s not essential.”” Old Chen did the estimation. Over the past six months, he has saved nearly 30,000 yuan on the expense of led Tours. The saved money can also be used for the “Collection of Ancient City Stories”. Currently, 40 new explanations on “The Origin of the Alleys” and “the History of the Old Residences” have been included.
Verdict: Let the stories of the ancient city be heard and kept in mind by more individuals.
Nowadays, when visiting the ancient city of Tianshui, one can typically see such a scene: tourists are hanging M7 audio guides and quietly listening to the tale of “drawing the Hexagrams” in front of the Fuxi Temple. Overseas tourists listened to the English explanations while taking pictures of the brick carvings in the Hu Family Ancient Residence. The children surrounded the wooden Windows of the old residence and followed the explanations to determine the “Five Blessings” patterns. On the bluestone sidewalk, the voices of explanations and the exclamations of tourists interwove, developing one of the most unique “sound landscape” of this thousand-year-old ancient city.
Yingmi has always thought that good self-guided scenic tour tools should not be a “cool maker”, but a “megaphone of culture”– helping ancient cities tell their thousand-year-old tales clearly and helping tourists remember their cultural memories deeply. In the future, Yingmi will continue to maximize the functions of M7, such as adding AR communication (allowing tourists to check the code to see the “life scenes of the ancient city during the Ming and Qing Dynasties”), and increasing more small languages, so that more people around the globe can understand the cultural heritage of Tianshui Ancient City, and let the charm of this thousand-year-old Silk Road town spread throughout the world with the explanations.
Whether it’s the Fuxi Temple in Tianshui Ancient City or historical scenic spots and museums overseas, Yingmi hopes to use wise gadgets like the M7 to ensure that every valuable cultural memory can be clearly conveyed and remembered for a long time, and to revitalize ancient civilizations with the help of technology.
FAQ
1.Q: What makes the Yingmi M7 system different from traditional tour guides?
A: It offers automated, sensor-triggered explanations in multiple languages, eliminating the need for manual scheduling and providing a seamless experience for all visitors.
2.Q: How many languages does the system support?
A: It supports 8 languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Arabic, with culturally adapted content.
3.Q: Is the device suitable for children and elderly visitors?
A: Yes, its lightweight design and automatic operation make it easy for all ages to use without technical assistance.
4.Q: How long does the battery last on a single charge?
A: The battery lasts up to 16 hours, ensuring all-day use without interruptions.
5.Q: Can the system handle high tourist traffic without issues?
A: Yes, it uses anti-interference technology to provide clear audio even in crowded conditions.