Finding the Silver Lining
The Potala Palace and other famed tourist destinations turn to livestreaming and cloud services
‘Dear friends, welcome to Lhasa, I’m your tour guide today,” said a blithe Tsering Drolkar, bringing an aura of faraway magic with her green chuba, the long sleeveless Tibetan tunic worn by women over a blouse. The place where she was standing was even more so—the foot of the Potala Palace, one of the dream destinations of tourists all over the world and a Unesco-recognized World Heritage Site in Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.
The unique thing about the tour guide’s introduction to the 1,300-year-old palace first built by Tibetan King Songtsa Gambo (617650), the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was that she was not leading the usual group of tourists that day. Instead, she was speaking to the camera that was livestreaming her narration of the landmark’s history to present it before the world in time of the novel coronavirus pandemic and self-isolation globally.
It was the first time that the 40-hectare complex, which houses more than 130,000 priceless cultural relics, had appeared in a livestreaming. Considering public health safety during the outbreak, the Potala Palace, visited by over 1.5 million people every year, was closed since January 27. To fill the vacuum, Drolkar stepped in on March 1 with a 60-minute livestream, conducting an online tour for more than 1 million “visitors” from all over the country. Along with her, they “walked” along the classic visiting routes, enjoyed the historic sites and amazing artifacts, and learned about heritage conservation, all from the safety of their own home.
As a special treat, they were taken on a tour of the Potala Palace Cultural Relics Research Office to see how ancient classics stored in the palace were being conserved and digitally preserved for future generations. They were also taken to the lofty golden roof of the palace, out of bounds for the general public.
“Using digital technology to livestream the Potala Palace is a new way of making more people know more about it,” said Jorden, Director of the Potala Palace Management Office. “Such interactive cloud tours enable viewers to experience the charm of the palace without leaving their home.”
Smart solutions
In December 2019, the Alibaba Group, the Chinese multinational technology company, launched its digital tourism economy project. The objective is to boost tourism, cultural tourism and ecological partnership projects by combining actual experiences with virtual ones using the cloud platform. The online services include e-maps, shopping, food and tourism. The new venture comes after the group’s in
wrote the text. The result was gratifying with 1.25 million views and 1.15 million likes. Now the museum is planning to expand the livestream on Bilibili.com, a video website popular with young people.
Online meets offline