At the northernmost end of Beijing's Central Axis, a vertical axis of its urban layout dating back to the 13th century, the city's iconic landmarks -- the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower -- stand in solemn succession.

Stepping into the Drum Tower, visitors are treated to a fully immersive experience through its digital interactive exhibition "the story of time." Here, ancient architecture is transformed into a space where light and shadow dance, narrating the ancestors' cosmology and wisdom in timekeeping, offering a glimpse into China's innovative fusion of historical edifices with digital creativity.

This novel approach to cultural heritage preservation in this digital era has garnered wide attention at the ongoing 2024 International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation by Digitization held in the Chinese capital.

In the tide of digitalization, global experts and scholars are discussing how to use new technologies and methods to protect, document, research, manage and interpret cultural heritages, as well as transform historical resources into innovative industries and new quality productive forces.

As of Tuesday, over 300 representatives of more than 200 cultural institutions, universities and enterprises from 20 countries and regions, including Canada, Italy, Greece, and the Republic of Korea, have gathered at the four-day forum to share their experiences and perspectives on digital exploration in various fields such as historical towns, China's national historical and cultural heritage sites of the "Three Hills and Five Gardens," digital grottoes and artificial intelligence (AI) application in archaeology.

The Dunhuang Academy's digital project has made high-definition images of 30 Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest China's Dunhuang, available worldwide, allowing the public to view the caves' vivid images online. Similarly, a digital exhibition hall has been established to facilitate a "dialogue" across time between the famous Terracotta Warriors back in the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC) and the young soldiers of ancient Greece.

Meanwhile, technologies such as 3D modeling and virtual reality (VR) have been employed to reconstruct the Great Wall's appearance while also demonstrating its construction methods and functions. During the forum, delegates will be introduced to the latest digital applications for cultural heritage protection.

"The rapid development of digital technology is profoundly changing the development of society and our lives, and it has also opened up an unprecedentedly broad space for the protection of cultural heritage," said Xie Bing, deputy head of China's National Cultural Heritage Administration, at the forum.

In recent years, new technologies such as VR, big data and AI have greatly promoted the innovative development of the cultural heritage preservation cause and rejuvenated the ancient historical and cultural heritages, according to Xie.

He Yan, president of ICOMOS CHINA Scientific Committee of Cultural Heritage Conservation by Digitalization (CHCD), introduced her team's digital preservation project on the Old Summer Palace, or "Yuanmingyuan" in Beijing, during the forum.

From traditional craftsmen to new talents with digital knowledge, from the past cumbersome surveying and collecting equipment to the current lightweight and fast big data processing and AI analysis, the cultural heritage industry is revitalizing with the support of digital technologies, said He.

Once cultural heritage is transformed into data, the data becomes a new production material, which can create new value and bring more expansion and imagination to cultural heritage, she added.

"In the past, many technology companies thought cultural heritage was 'too small' to be specially developed," He noted. "Now, the cultural heritage industry is facing new opportunities. We can use better technologies, combine better application scenarios, carry out integrated innovation, strengthen cultural heritage protection and also form industrial clusters to promote economic growth."

Fulvio Rinaudo, president of CIPA (Comité International de la Photogrammétrie Architecturale) Heritage Documentation and professor of the Polytechnic University of Turin, believes that cultural heritage protection is a complex task that requires interdisciplinary cooperation among professionals in economics, management, engineering, archaeology and other fields, as well as strengthened international exchanges and cooperation to solve practical problems.

In the process of the world's historical development, China has always been committed to promoting the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations and playing an important role. And strengthening exchanges and cooperation in the field of digital heritage between China and Europe is very significant, according to Rinaudo.

Themed on reshaping digital heritage driven by technological innovation, the symposium also includes sub-forums, exhibitions, report presentations, field trips and industrial competitions for global talents in the culture heritage research field. The event was first held in 2010.