Recently, the eastern coastal city of Qingdao launched a three-year action plan (2022-24) to promote the high-quality development of the virtual reality industry.

According to the action plan, Qingdao will focus on the "3+4" industrial development path, consolidate the foundation of key technologies, layout the manufacturing of complete machine products, drive the agglomeration of related supporting industries, and build a virtual reality industry research and development and manufacturing base with global competitiveness.

A rendering of Qingdao Virtual Reality Industrial Park [Photo/Qingdao Daily]

Qingdao is expected to develop the city's support system construction, talent introduction and training, as well as industry innovation and application, to build a virtual reality industry ecosystem with complete elements.

By 2024, the city's virtual reality industry chain is expected to be complete, with related terminal products and key components achieving mass production, and the industrial scale exceeding 20 billion yuan ($2.97 billion). By 2030, the scale of the city's virtual reality industry is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan.

The 5G High-and-New-Tech Video Pilot Park, a highlight project located in the West Coast New Area, is China's first 5G technology-driven project. [Photo/Qingdao Daily]

Qingdao has gathered more than 100 virtual reality enterprises and related institutions throughout the entire industry chain, covering intelligent hardware research and development, platform services, content production, and application scenarios. In 2021, the industry's revenue exceeded 5 billion yuan.

According to officials from the Qingdao municipal bureau of industry and information technology, districts of Laoshan, Shinan and Jimo and the West Coast New Area have outperformed the city's other regions in developing the virtual reality industry.

About 70 percent of the country's virtual reality research force is rooted in Laoshan district. Shandong currently has 13 high-end research and development institutions specializing in the field of virtual reality, and most of them are based in Laoshan.