Chinese turn to a virtual world for the future of their economy

You may or may not know that the Chinese government together with a company called MindArk are creating a brand new virtual commercial world or cash-based virtual economy for China.

The new project will permit up to 7 million concurrent users logged into the virtual universe with an overall aim to attract some 150 million users from all over the world. part of the Entropia Universe, a three-dimensional universe on the Internet intended for entertainment, work, commerce, community building, culture, and much more, is expected to generate over $1 billion annually in commerce.

So the Chinese are building a virtual world where their citizen will go to do business with the rest of the world and we're struggling to produce enough power just to keep the lights of the country all on at the same time?
Then again perhaps it's better searching for matches than making a living in one giant computer game. Check out the intro video to Entropia here.