Hue brings heritage into the digital age

The application of digital technology in preserving and promoting heritage values ​​is being promoted by Hue city, creating a harmonious combination between tradition and modernity.

Thanks to that, cultural heritages are not only preserved sustainably but also continue to "live" in the hearts of today's public, especially the young generation.

Bringing digital technology to heritage

A corner of Hue Imperial City. Photo: Vu Sinh/VNA

Hue - the heritage city, currently owns 8 World Cultural Heritages recognized by UNESCO, including 6 local heritages, including: Complex of Hue Monuments, Hue Royal Court Music, Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty, Royal Records of Nguyen Dynasty, Poetry on Hue Royal Architecture and Plates cast on nine bronze cauldrons in Hue Imperial Palace. In addition, Hue also co-owns 2 common heritages with other localities: Practice of Mother Goddess Worship and Central Vietnam's Bai Choi Art.

The Hue Monuments Conservation Center is currently responsible for managing, preserving and restoring more than 40 important relics in the Hue Monuments Complex, typically Ngo Mon, Hien Lam Cac, The Mieu relic cluster, Dien Tho Palace, Thai Hoa Palace, etc. In recent years, the Center has been one of the pioneers in digital transformation, contributing to bringing heritage closer and more vivid to tourists. The "Vietnam Digital Transformation 2025" Award with two categories "Digital Identification" and "Nguyen Dynasty Antiques Exhibition" that the Center just achieved on October 8 is proof of those efforts. These two solutions are a breakthrough in applying new technology to help preserve and promote existing heritage values, bringing heritage into the digital age. Each relic is assigned a unique identification code, combined with 3D digitization and storage on blockchain (block chain technology) to ensure authenticity, transparency and high security. The digital exhibition system on museehue.vn, applying VR/AR (virtual reality/augmented reality), metaverse (virtual universe) and physical technology, allows the public to experience vivid heritage that transcends the limits of space and time.

The implementation of the solutions of “Digital Identification” and “Exhibition of Nguyen Dynasty Antiquities” has proven its feasibility and sustainable expansion. From the pilot of 10 digitally identified antiquities in 2024, in 2025, the Hue Monuments Conservation Center expanded the identification of 98 more antiquities designed in 10 digital exhibition rooms. From this success, the People's Committee of Hue City has approved the policy of digital identification for nearly 1,000 antiquities in the coming time.

Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center Hoang Viet Trung said that, keeping up with the general trend, the Center has deployed many advanced technology applications including digitizing heritage data, automatic multilingual explanations, virtual reality, digital exhibitions on the metaverse platform, identifying artifacts using RFID/NFC technology (remote data transmission) combined with blockchain; at the same time, aiming to expand the development of artificial intelligence (AI), big data (Big Data) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies that will be put into use to optimize the management process and provide information to visitors at heritage sites in Hue.

Open up new approaches

Royal Garden (part of the Hue Monuments Complex). Photo: Vu Sinh/VNA

The application of digital technology has turned Hue into a smart tourist destination. Coming to Hue Imperial City, Nguyen Dynasty tombs... QR codes are ready to automatically explain in multiple languages, facilitating and personalizing the journey of discovery of tourists. In particular, virtual reality technology is gradually applied, allowing tourists to experience Hue in the past and interact directly with the heritage, thereby opening up new approaches to tourism and culture. Francois, a French tourist visiting Hue Imperial City, shared: "Using a smartphone to scan multilingual QR codes, I can easily look up information about relics, scenic spots, cuisine, accommodation facilities and shopping services in Hue".
Hue is not only a heritage city, but also a smart city when digital transformation technology is applied in all fields. As the tourism center of the country, Hue has built a "smart destination" tourism ecosystem through digital technology. A typical example is the "Hue-S" application that supports tourists online with many utilities. Ms. Nguyen Ngan, a tourist from Hanoi, said that with the "Hue-S" application, she can learn about all destinations, book services, locate tourist maps, and schedule attractive events when traveling in Hue city.
Recently, Phygital Labs Joint Stock Company and Hue City have cooperated to promote digital transformation in tourism, culture, and heritage; thereby creating many digital technology applications to preserve and exploit heritage values. According to Founder and General Director of Phygital Labs Joint Stock Company Nguyen Huy, the most important thing is to change the perspective of considering heritage not only as a spiritual treasure to be preserved, but also as a national asset and an economic resource that can be exploited sustainably. Hue City is actively building technology infrastructure, developing creative people and has actively participated in the digital transformation process of the whole country and concretizing with the Hue Monuments Conservation Center. The unit is taking pioneering steps on the path of digital transformation. With determination, Hue can completely become a national model in combining conservation and development, bringing heritage into the cultural industrial flow, building a digital economy with unique digital assets to not only promote potential but also spread Vietnamese identity to the world.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/van-hoa/ngay-chuyen-doi-so-quoc-gia-1010-hue-dua-di-san-vao-ky-nguyen-so-20251010094402604.htm