Actress Shu Qi leads the tour on the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk guide of Hong Kong.
Who better than a luxury company built out of its dedication to the art of travel than Louis Vuitton to come up with the ultimate virtual city guide? The French luxury goods company has teamed up with Soundwalk, a leading audio walking tour company, to create a collection of downloadable audio guides for MP3 players worldwide. Just in time for the approaching Olympic games, the first series will take place in China, featuring cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Each tour is lead by a well-known Chinese actress who is also a native of the respective city. Each actress guides the viewer or listener through the streets for a cinematographic experience of sounds, sights and secret hideaways unique to the city. In addition to the guides themselves, the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk website will offer interviews with the actresses as well as interactive maps, photos and videos of the cities. The hour-long guides can be purchased for $18 and are available in six different languages and currencies. With airlines now charging for baggage, perhaps this is the best time to leave bulky travel guide books at home and download a Vuitton Soundwalk guide straight to your phone or ipod.