China's virtual reality (VR) industry attracted strong investment and financing last year as market players raced to tap the burgeoning high-tech sector.

The scale of investment and financing in VR more than doubled in 2021, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Currently, there are over 10,000 VR-related firms in China, pushing the technology's applications into various scenarios in industry, culture, and education, among others.

Earlier this month, China unveiled a plan to boost the industry's development, aiming to expand its market scale to over 350 billion yuan (about $49.4 billion) by 2026.

The plan aims to cultivate 100 top enterprises with strong innovation ability and industry influence, while also aiming to increase the sales of VR to over 25 million units. 

Globally speaking, the world's total shipments of VR headsets also increased rapidly in 2021, breaking the annual shipment of 10 million units for the first time.

(With input from Xinhua)