NPCs in scenic spots enrich cultural experience. Chinese people favor immersion from "viewing the scenery" to "playing together"

China News Service, Ningbo, Zhejiang, October 3rd. Title: NPCs in scenic spots enrich cultural experience. Chinese people favor immersion from "viewing the scenery" to "playing together"

Author Lin Bo

During the National Day holiday, the metasequoia forest in Hupao Park, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province was filled with mist. Seven national-style NPCs held up oil-paper umbrellas and walked along the Hupao Trail. Along the way, there are also "Quanlin Hermits" who sometimes stop to "listen to the spring" and sometimes guide the way with their hands, attracting tourists to take photos.

"I came to the Tiger Run on a rainy day and was worried that the event would be cancelled. I didn't expect to see the graceful figure of the 'hermit'. It had a more Jiangnan flavor. It was like walking into a living landscape painting." Chen Chen, a tourist from Shanghai, was quite satisfied with this trip.

Yang Lixin, a tourist from Shandong, said: "NPC's performance adds to the humanistic atmosphere of the park. Not only is the scenery beautiful, but the people are also beautiful."

At the edge of Hupao Spring, NPC also interacted with tourists on Q&A about the history of Hupao.

On October 1, tourists interacted with NPCs in the scenic area at Hupao Park in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Photo by Cao Dan

Scenic area NPCs are people in the cultural tourism industry who provide guidance and companionship to tourists based on specific cultural themes through role-playing, plot interaction and other methods to enhance tourists' scenic experience. Diverse NPCs are becoming a new entrance to many scenic spots in China, allowing tourists to move from "viewing the scenery" to "taking part in a show", thereby obtaining a more vivid and immersive tourism experience.

Data from the China Tourism Academy shows that in 2025, 68% of Chinese tourists will list "immersive experience" as the primary criterion for choosing scenic spots, far exceeding the 23% who choose "landscape viewing". According to the "China Experience Economy Development Report (2025)" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, as of the end of November 2025, the size of China's experience economy market reached 18.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.6%. Various new consumption scenarios with the experience economy as the core are booming in various places.

On October 2, NPC Yu Mingyang (first from right), who plays Li Bai, interacts with tourists at Xiangshan Film and Television City in Ningbo, Zhejiang. Photo by Lin Bo

In Ningbo Xiangshan Film and Television City, NPC Yu Ming, who plays Li Bai, also plays the guitar and sings with tourists. Talking about the competition on the NPC track in scenic spots during the National Day holiday, he believes that NPCs must have their own characteristics to attract tourists. "For example, if Li Bai, who I play, can play the piano, it will attract tourists who love singing to come and interact, sing and dance together."

Yu Mingyang said that the people he interacted with covered all age groups, "which shows that the immersive play brought by NPCs in scenic spots has been recognized by the market."

According to the relevant person in charge of Xiangshan Film and Television City, the park is regularly equipped with more than 100 NPCs during the National Day holiday, covering classic film and television characters, mechas and other fields. They are mainly composed of students from Xiangshan Film and Television Academy, local "Xiang Diao" actors and social recruiters. Among them, "some NPCs have become popular on the Internet through impromptu interactions, bringing huge natural traffic to the scenic spot."

"The bamboo stick and mango shoes beat the horse, who is afraid? You can live your whole life in the mist and rain." In the Tang Dynasty Evernight City in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, Wang Zihang, the actor of "Du Fu in Chang'an", moved the scene of the poem into the live broadcast room while working as an NPC in the scenic spot.

"Many offline tourists come here just to read a line of poetry with 'Du Fu'." Wang Zihang said in a phone interview that he wanted to use poetry to build a bridge so that people today can communicate with the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Moreover, "if tourists can remember a line of poetry and understand an elegance amidst laughter, their work will be worthwhile."

In the Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City in Kaifeng City, Henan Province, thousands of NPC interactions, a banknote mission system and immersive martial arts plots have turned martial arts IP into an on-site experience that can be entered, played and replayed.

In 2022, the park's revenue was only more than 80 million yuan; in the first half of 2026, it achieved comprehensive revenue of 940 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.6%. Jia Chenlu, who plays the NPC "Second Mother" in the park, said in a previous interview in Ningbo: "My program is mainly interactive, mainly allowing tourists to boldly show themselves, making them feel that they are not only tourists, but also protagonists."

NPCs are increasingly active and abundant in scenic spots around the world, and have become one of the colorful and dynamic new scenes in China's cultural tourism market. (over)