A man demonstrates a VR simulated rescue drill system at a national hazardous chemicals emergency rescue base of Sinopec Zhongyuan Oilfield in Puyang, central China's Henan Province, Oct 16, 2019. Photo:Xinhua

Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, laid the cornerstone of a VR town on Sunday in a bid to seek new growth engines and lead China's VR boom with the arrival of the 5G era.

The VR town, or the VR technology and innovation town, covers a total area of nine square km with gross investment amounting to around 50 billion yuan (about 7 billion US dollars).

An integrated value chain is expected to take shape in the VR town, which consists of platforms of enterprise services and talent training, to further boost VR applications, hardware manufacturing, software engineering and content production.

Chinese tech firm Huawei will help facilitate the operation and management of the VR town with technical support for the communications network, cloud computing and big data, the company said.

The 2019 World Conference on the VR Industry concludes Monday in Nanchang, with 104 contracts totaling 9.2 billion US dollars signed, according to the provincial department of industry and information technology.