In Yan'an — the Communist Party of China's wartime stronghold in Northwest China's Shaanxi province — a participatory, gamified approach to learning about history is proving to be a clear success, replacing dusty textbooks with tunnels, holograms and immersive walk-throughs.
Not far from the preserved cave-dwellings at Wangjiaping, where CPC troops and commanders once lived, dozens of university students crawl through a winding tunnel at Red Street, a revolutionary-themed tourist site.
Zhang Xiaowen, 23, from Renmin University of China in Beijing, is among them. They are taking part in a hands-on re-creation of the underground networks used during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) — China's front in World War II.
The tunnels are faithful replicas of the systems made famous by the 1965 film Tunnel Warfare, complete with hidden entrances tucked under stoves, chicken coops and animal sheds. Exclamations echo through the narrow passages whenever someone uncovers a concealed door.
Zhang said that the experience reminded him of when he watched the film as a child. "I felt as if I had become one of the soldiers," he said,"and I had a better understanding of how they remained optimistic despite their hardships."
The tunnel experience is part of the "Trials of Soldiers" training ground at Red Street, where participants search for hidden passages while learning how civilians and fighters used these routes to move, hide and fight.
Immersive lessons
Just a short walk away, hundreds of mostly young people line up for Back to Yan'an, an immersive show that debuted in 2021. It centers on a fictional Red Army veteran's diary from the Long March — the Party's strategic retreat from 1934 to 1936 that brought the CPC to north of Shaanxi, where it would establish its revolutionary base.
The 65-minute performance unfolds across 4,500 square meters, guiding up to 500 visitors through four acts without fixed seating. Through sound, light and simulated wind and snow, the production offers a full sensory experience, bringing to life the snowcapped peaks and frozen marshes of that challenging journey.
For Jia Yaxin, a graduate student from Beijing and former volunteer teacher, the drama offers a less formal alternative to traditional "Red education" — one that she found more engaging.
"I accepted its story naturally, and by the end I genuinely felt respect for the people who lived through that history," she said.
On a different Red-themed street, another walk-through production, Thirteen Years in Yan'an, picks up where Back to Yan'an leaves off. Also debuting in 2021, it turns an entire street into a living history book, tracing the 13 years from late 1935 to early 1948, the period when the Party built its revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi after the Long March.
Zhang Jin, the show's artistic director, said that the 50-minute performance uses holographic projections of Japanese bombers and wire stunts to intensify the audience's engagement.
Kang Jiarui, a student from Tianjin, was among the hundreds of young visitors crowding the street.
"The immersion was unforgettable," she said, recalling the moment when holographic warplanes appeared and an actor shouted for everyone to take cover. "I dropped to the ground instinctively — it made the history so concrete."
Known as the "Revolutionary Museum City", Yan'an boasts 445 revolutionary sites, 30 museums and 13 patriotic education bases — the largest concentration of its kind in China, according to its tourism bureau.
Tech-enhanced attractions, most of which debuted in 2021 to mark the Party's centenary, have become a new favorite among younger audiences.
According to ticketing platform Ly.com, travelers aged 18 to 35 accounted for over half of Red-tourism visits nationwide in the first half of this year. Experiences labeled with "real-world missions", "costume role-play" or "nonplayer character interactions" saw bookings grow at double the average rate for scenic spots, while searches for Red tourism combined with interactive formats also surged.
With the nation marking the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, Yan'an expects to receive more than 50 million tourists this year, local authorities said.
Beyond spectacle
Experts said that Yan'an's immersive Red tourism represents a welcome evolution in the way revolutionary history is presented, but they cautioned that as such projects become more commercialized, authorities should guard against historical distortion and excessive entertainment.
Shi Anbin, a Tsinghua University professor who studies how media shapes public memory, said that these immersive projects reflect a broader shift in how revolutionary history is passed on to young audiences, leveraging virtual reality, augmented reality and sensory staging to create "virtual realism".
For Generation Z, who were born between the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s and lack the historical context of older generations, immersion is not a gimmick but a necessary tool for deepening understanding, he said. "It increases the effectiveness and relevance of communication."
Du Jiacheng, a Party history educator at Renmin University of China, praises immersive Red tourism for turning abstract political narratives into "concrete, perceptible individual life stories".
Yet he warns that it must not become mere spectacle. "If people just play a game without understanding the meaning and significance of these historical events, the educational effect will be diminished," he said.
Gao Fenglin, a professor at Yan'an University and an expert on the Long March, said, "History is receding from us, yet it often rhymes." Immersive experiences, he said, can help young people connect the past with the present, avoid past mistakes and understand why the socialist system works.
He also called for greater efforts to develop Red resources along the route of the Long March and pass on its stories to inspire the younger generation.