The Theme Park of the Future Could Be in This Chinese Basement

(Bloomberg) -- Virtual reality is catching on in China. Just ask Zhang Yimou, the man who choreographed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

SoReal, a startup co-founded by the famed director of "House of Flying Daggers" and "The Great Wall," is preparing to open this year what it bills to be the world's first virtual-reality park.

"As a movie director—someone who is good at creating visual effects—this technology is significant," Zhang said. "It's not flat. You can see color in 360 degrees. You can even interact with it. That's unique!"

While the Nanchang theme park has yet to be built, SoReal currently operates in a 10,000 square foot basement of a Beijing shopping mall, where goggle-wearing visitors can shoot space creatures while walking through a barren, foam-padded area or try out other virtual-reality experiences.

The company has ambitions to become the Universal Studios of China and plans to open its first park by the end of this year in eastern Jiangxi province, Chief Executive Officer Michael Qi Xiao said. Highlights will include characters such as the "Monkey King”—the mythological simian superhero whose stories have spawned a plethora of literature, animation and feature films in the country—Qi said.

Director Zhang has reason to be optimistic. The industry is growing so fast that researcher IDC predicts China will overtake the U.S. as the world's largest virtual-reality market in 2019.

—With assistance from Jing Yang de Morel and Stephen Engle

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Jing Yang De Morel in Shanghai at jyang543@bloomberg.net, Stephen Engle in Hong Kong at sengle1@bloomberg.net.

With assistance from Editorial Board