Qiao Qiao, an AR digital human, is a spirited young woman from Shanxi, the ancient land of Jin, and the star guide at the Qiao Family Compound. She handles everything a human guide can do—navigation, commentary, even a bit of light-hearted banter, all with remarkable ease. Like Qiaojie in Dream of the Red Chamber, whose name and fate revolve around the character “qiao”, which means clever or auspicious, Qiao Qiao truly lives up to her name. Beneath her human-like exterior lies a treasure trove of magical tricks, seventy-two transformations to be exact. Let’s take an A-to-Z look at her signature specialties.

Living Map

Qiao Qiao is a living map. She knows every single brick of the Qiao Family Compound—every alley, every hall, every scenic spot, every shop, every restroom. Wherever you want to go, she’ll take you there. Compared with traditional GPS navigation, Qiao’s AR navigation is far more effective. With VPS (Visual Positioning System), your phone can better recognise its surroundings. Outdoors, you don’t need to rotate your phone to orient yourself—once the positioning locks on, just follow along. No more lag like you sometimes get with GPS, where you walk a bit before realising you’re going the wrong way. Indoors, Qiao Qiao works across multiple floors, truly pinpointing your location across distance and elevation, and the spatial map updates in real time, which means even temporary exhibitions are immediately available.

Qiao Family PhD

There’s no anecdote Qiao Qiao doesn’t know, no secret she hasn’t uncovered. To her, the Qiao Family Compound is as familiar as an open book: 18 grand courtyards, 41 smaller yards, and 731 rooms. From architectural details to Jin merchant customs to local traditions, she holds every piece of this northern Chinese residential gem in her mind. With 124 points of interest and 140,000 words of meticulously crafted commentary, she can recount every single one verbatim and make it utterly captivating.

Thoughtful Tour and Commentary Modes

For tours, Qiao Qiao offers four modes. The first is a foolproof smart-selection mode—you don’t have to think about anything; just tap “Smart Tour”, and she’ll identify which attraction is closest to you and start the guide from there. The second is “walk-and-listen”—rich in culture, ensuring every step you take is worthwhile. The third is route-based tours: Qiao Qiao divides the courtyard into different zones, each with its own route, and each route covers several attractions—you can pick the route that interests you most. The last is map navigation. Compared with the clean efficiency of list-based navigation, the map view offers a more three-dimensional experience, building a spatial connection between you and each attraction.

Qiao’s commentary style is equally clear and straightforward. She offers different options and leaves the choice to you. If you prefer a traditional approach, you can directly access illustrated audio commentary; if you lean towards immersive experiences, you can opt for AR exploration, where Qiao Qiao has hidden plenty of Easter eggs—indeed, it’s here that she unleashes most of her seventy-two transformations.

Seventy-Two Magic Transformations

Qiao Qiao loves a bit of magic. Straight narration can sometimes feel dull, so she skillfully weaves in images, text, and video throughout her commentary, bringing everything to life in vivid, immersive detail. She highlights easily missed nuances at just the right moment, making her storytelling truly vivid and engaging.

3D Scene Reconstruction

For anything too distant, too abstract, too mysterious—in short, anything that feels remote—Qiao Qiao enhances her commentary with 3D scene reconstructions, aiming to reduce the barrier to understanding and make the visit more immersive and enjoyable.

In front of the statues, visitors can scan a marker and watch animated scenes that bring history to life—showing, for instance, how the Qiao family grasped pivotal chances to amass their wealth.

For plaques like “Fu Zhong Lang Huan” (Blessings Sown in the Fairyland), Qiao Qiao doesn’t just tell the story behind it. In 1900, the 26th year of the Guangxu era, the Eight-Nation Alliance marched on Beijing. The Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor fled westwards, passing through Qi County in Shanxi. Qiao Zhiyong, the Qiao family patriarch, housed their entourage at the family’s Da De Tong exchange shop and donated 100,000 taels of silver. Later, Shanxi Governor Ding Baozhen, acting on an imperial decree, presented this plaque to the Qiao family as a mark of imperial favour. But Qiao Qiao goes further—she evokes the very spirit of “Lang Huan”. In legend, it was the celestial library of the Heavenly Emperor; over time, it came to signify a fairyland. So the plaque’s inscription conveys the blessing of sowing good fortune into a home as blessed as a fairyland.

One Experience, Kept Forever

For the price of a cup of afternoon tea, you get Qiao Qiao’s guiding service—and in return, she gives you a lasting gift: a vast knowledge repository about the Qiao Family Compound that’s yours to keep forever. You can revisit it whenever you wish.

AR Digital Human Guides Like Qiao Qiao

We have deployed similar solutions at many scenic spots across China. These guides are next-generation digital human guides that combine the latest AI and AR technologies. With customizable avatars, the guide delivers a brand-new immersive cultural tourism experience, covering spatial navigation, sightseeing, storytelling, and cultural commentary, all in one. Feel free to reach out for more information.