The old building that once housed the Qingdao Chamber of Commerce – on Zhongshan Road in the Shinan district of Qingdao, East China's Shandong province – recently reopened after more than a year of restoration, offering visitors memories of a bygone city.

The building is now a social museum, covering the history of Qingdao.

Through old photos, bills and other exhibits and with the application of cutting-edge XR technology – which uses computer-generated augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, among other things – visitors can have an immersive experience of the development of the century-old city.

The building, constructed in 1906-07 in a typical German architectural style, has a floor space of 3,000 square meters. Renovation work started in 2021. Without original drawings, it took the construction team four months of detailed research – meticulously examining old photographs – to come up with a renovation plan.

After the work, the first floor and basement have been transformed into the Zhongshan Road City Memory Museum. The new facility looks back at the history of Zhongshan Road, a century-old street that led the city's commercial world and was home to giants of finance.

These days, what impresses visitors most is the XR technology that vividly depicts the multitude of changes and developments Zhongshan Road has undergone, as well as its surrounding towns. The highlight is an immersive cinema featuring five screens, that transports visitors to times gone by.

In addition, visitors can take a simulated bus tour, in which they can experience the commercial development history of Zhongshan Road at different times.

The facade of the museum is also equipped with photo projection technology, which can showcase the history of the city when night falls.

A visitor experiences some of the many changes in Qingdao over the decades, in the Zhongshan Road City Memory Museum. [Photo/Guanhai News]