Front view of Huayan Temple, Datong, Shanxi. [Photo/dtnews.cn]

The city of Datong, Shanxi province is providing a 13-minute documentary on its Huayan Temple to broadcasting on the two popular video websites, Tencent and Youku, to explain the temple's history and culture for a larger audience, Datong Daily reported, on Nov 19, noting that it gives every detail of the temple, a Liao and Jin dynasty (916-1234) creation, with an accompanying commentary, all with high quality images.

When the National Tourism Administration declared 2014 the "Year of Travel with Wisdom", they meant to change the travel experience with the help of new information and communication technology, using tourist sites to increase advertising, having more tourism exhibitions, and spending more on new media and technology. So, the temple administrators came up with the video idea and asked local film makers to produce a documentary in response to China's push for better tourism services, especially information. The city's main reason was to promote its tourism. In addition to the documentary, the site has its own App and mobile clients, and a public account in WeChat, the powerful online community, to provide weather forecasts, ticket booking, hotel reservation, personal travel arrangements, and other information and tips.