The international new culture e-sports center is said to be situated to the south of Jiuqu West Street, west of Haoyue Road, north of Shifang Street and east of Huaxi Road. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

The East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC) began construction of its international new culture e-sports center on March 26.

The center, featuring e-sports, animations, comics, games, movies and TV programs, is expected to become a digital cultural industrial area for the e-sports industry.

Wuhan Cultural Investment Development Group Co invested 2.1 billion yuan ($330.33 million) on the project, which is scheduled to be located in the core area of the Optics Valley Central City, with a total construction area of 200,000 square meters. The center will open to the public in 2024 as planned.

"The main e-sport pavilion has a maxim capacity of 1,000 people, and is capable of hosting all kinds of activities related to training, talent cultivation, business cooperation, and cultural dissemination," said Pan Wangxing, chairman of the group, "the pavilion will gather enterprises at the upper and lower reaches of the industry and boost the overall development of the e-sports sector."

Data indicate that Wuhan has the seventh most e-sports players of any city in China, and also boasts more than 40 successful firms in the industry. In 2021, the term "e-sport" was highlighted in the municipal 14th five-year plan (2021-25) for economic and social development.