China to Wire Great Wall for High-Tech Tourism

As China’s tourism sector takes off, the country’s National Tourism Administration has just approved new guidelines that call for installation of free Wi-Fi and other high-tech bells and whistles at the nation’s top tourist sites by 2020. 

The guidelines pertain to all tourism sites rated 4A or higher under the agency’s system that assigns from one to five “A”s to each attraction, with five for the best ones like the Great Wall and Forbidden City in Beijing, and the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an. Under the Tourism Administration’s vision, Wi-Fi systems will form a backbone at top tourist attractions that allows for other high-tech features like online ordering and reservations, smart tour guide systems, and general information updates. 

Managers will also use systems to improve visitors’ experience through practices like better crowd control and a more-efficient use of resources. Chinese made 4 billion domestic trips for tourism in 2015, spending 3.42 trillion yuan ($495 billion), up 10.5% and 13% respectively from the previous year, according to the Tourism Administration. Visits by foreigners reached 134 million in 2015, up 4.1%.

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)