What would it be like to walk around Olympia when the ancient Olympic Games were being held? An unusual partnership between Microsoft and Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sport is offering tourists the answer.

The ministry    1    (approve) the project 18 months ago, after reaching an    2    (agree) with Microsoft to build three data centers in Athens. As agreed, the ministry will map and build virtual representations at Olympia, a site used for nearly a thousand years    3    (host) the game in ancient Greece, while Microsoft provides augmented reality (AR) technology to recreate temples and competition areas in the ancient city of Olympia. After    4    (it) completion, tourists will be able to virtually visit inside and outside the buildings in    5     ancient Olympians had competed in different sports through Microsoft’s HoloLens eyeglasses. Currently the headset costs around $ 3,500. But as tech companies are racing to deliver AR equipment, the costs are decreasing     6     (rapid).

“It is     7     milestone that has helped us bring technology, culture    8     history together so we can preserve them,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said. “I hope that cheaper AR equipment and    9    (fast) Internet connections might put it within mainstream applications like tourism and provide us with the most powerful educational tool ever     10    (invent) within a couple of years. ”

This winter,     1     city of Harbin has spared no effort to show sincerity and     2     (create) in entertaining tourists from all over the world.

Harbin has long been a major tourist attraction in winter, and it has garnered more attention this winter. It ranked     3     (five) among the most popular cities for the 2024 New Year holiday, following Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Among the top 10 cities, Harbin is the only one that     4     (locate ) in northeast China.

    5     (prepare) for a year, Harbin didn’t attributed the boom to pure luck, said He Jing, director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Heilongjiang Province.

She said the city has been rolling out plans since the beginning of 2023     6     (boost) its tourism industry, attracting attention on various social media platforms. “We stand in the shoes of tourists. We pay special attention to their comments under our videos published on social media platforms. Whatever tourists complain about, we move and improve     7     (immediate),”she told CMG

To “rescue” tourists     8     are not used to the cold weather, the city built many temporary heated rest rooms for them, providing warm drinks for free       9     (freeze) pears, a local specialty, were cut into the shapes of flowers so that tourists could enjoy them conveniently.

“We want to impress tourists     10     all the small details, letting them feel comfortable and respected ”

A walk along the Beijing Central Axis (中轴线) , joining the Drum Tower, the Nanluoguxiang, the Jingshan Park and the Forbidden City—this was Zhao Xianghan’s     1     (one) city-walk journey in the spring of 2022. Since then, the 21-year-old student from the Beijing Foreign Studies University     2     (remain) a city-walk lover, believing it to be the best way to “rediscover a city”.

“I visited Beijing on a group tour before the start of my college life here, during     3     going to tourist destinations and taking photos was a big thing. It gave me the     4     (impress) that Beijing was a noisy place,” said Zhao, “yet now a city walk allows me     5     (see) a whole different side of Beijing.”

With more and more travel options,     6     (tradition) group tours can no longer satisfy people who are looking for a personalized and different travel experience. Compared     7     tightly-scheduled travel tours, city walk     8     (focus) more on the free side of a travel experience. The city-walk culture to experience urban life with no transportation means other than one’s legs and feet has also been     9     hit online. On a video-sharing app, a recent video about city-walk routes in Guangzhou has gained more than 171,000 likes.

“City walk is all about doing whatever you want in your own exploration of a city, and it is     10     (actual) a kind of slow-paced lifestyle that I love so much,” said Zhao.