Seeking a virtual reality breakthrough

Young Chinese play a first-person-shooting virtual reality game at an experience center in Beijing. [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

The goggle-based technology got off to a hot start in China last year, and creators are now chasing The Next Big Thing in content to continue the momentum, Xing Yi reports

I'm locked in a deserted workshop. Dead silence, except for the sound of mice running across the dust-covered floor. I've been groping among the rusted tools and cases for almost half an hour now, cracking one code after another, but the door still doesn't open.

I have to get out, before my nerves get the better of me.

I turn around to look into the mirror on the wall and spot something unusual - the reflection is indeed the room I'm standing in, only what it was like 15 years ago when everything was shiny and new. There is a string of numbers written on the wall. Could this be the last code I'm looking for? Heart pumping in my chest, I dial the combination on the door lock ... and it clicks.

The door opens, to my surprise, to a train compartment. I look outside the window only to be more surprised - the train is running on the surface of the sea.

But in reality, I didn't go anywhere. I take off the goggles, and I am in a small office of Oz Technology, a startup in the southeastern suburb of Beijing.

For the past half-hour, I've been playing a virtual reality game of the room-escape genre created by the company.