Far from glitzy tech hubs, Chinese city bets big on VR
Liu Zixing craned his neck forward for help with fastening the goggles for his first-ever taste of virtual reality. He took a break from the mining ore business to travel to a VR theme park in this Chinese provincial capital not known for high technology.
"It feels like reality," Liu said after shooting down robots in a virtual fighter jet, strapped to a spinning gyroscope lit in purple. "It's just like you're riding in a plane."
Nanchang's VR Star park offers 42 rides and exhibits, including VR bumper cars and VR shoot-'em-ups. It's the highlight of Nanchang's "VR base," a sprawling complex of mostly still empty, futuristic glass-and-steel offices.
The city of 5.5 million is the capital of Jiangxi province, a relatively impoverished region nestled in the mountains of south-central China, where the regional industries are copper mining and rice.
VR is included in Beijing's "Made in China 2025," an ambitious plan to develop global competitors in cutting edge technologies including electric cars, solar and wind power, and robotics. Nanchang is one of several VR hubs across the country.
Stopping by the Nanchang VR park, he was still unimpressed.
"The image quality isn't refined, and it's hard to operate," he said after a virtual flume ride.
Even if it's a gamble, analysts say China's state-led push into VR could pay off in the future. Nanchang's VR developers are marching on despite a wave of layoffs across the industry in the past few years. Thousands attended Nanchang's first VR conference last October.
See the full story here: https://phys.org/news/2019-04-glitzy-tech-hubs-chinese-city.html