GUIYANG, China (Reuters) — In the outskirts of Guiyang, the capital of one of China’s poorest provinces, giant robots and futuristic cyberpunk castles rise out of the lush surrounding mountainscape — a vision of what could be driving local economic growth in years to come.
This is China’s first virtual reality (VR) theme park that is looking to ride a boom in demand for virtual entertainment and a domestic VR market that is set to hit almost $8.5 billion by 2020.
The Oriental Science Fiction Valley park will have 35 different VR attractions, including shoot-em-up games, virtual roller coasters, and experiential tours of the province’s most scenic spots, and cost a cool $1.5 billion to built.
“I believe that after our attraction opens, it will change the entire tourism structure of Guizhou province as well as China’s southwest,” said chief executive Chen Jianli who added that the park’s novelty factor will be a major drawcard.
The Guiyang park will have a huge Transformer-like robot, which tourists can bungee jump from, while most rides will use VR goggles and motion simulators to thrill their audience.
“For virtual reality, the feeling we need to give the audience is that they’re actually inside the experience,” Qu Zhongjie, manager of rides at the park, added.
The park is expected to bring major economic benefits to the local community when the rides start running from Fabruary 2018.
But villagers living nearby also had to face the harsh reality of how construction of the 330-acre park was impacting their daily lives.
“There are some projects that are polluting (the environment). And we farmers hope that we can get rid of this pollution,” farmer Liu Guangjun said.
However virtual battles and alien invasions remain a big unknown to most locals. Liu added, “for the virtual reality I don’t really understand it.”