Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province produces more than 80 percent of optical microscopes in China, according to a conference held in the city on Nov 13.

The city is home to 42 optical electronic enterprises above the designated size, which had cumulative industrial output of 35.4 billion yuan in 2018, representing a yearly growth of 15.1 percent.

Last year, the city manufactured around two million optical microscopes worth a total of 2.5 billion yuan ($373.1 million).

Despite the city's large output, the quality of products produced still has room for improvement, noted Mao Lei, vice chairman of the China microscope standards committee.

Mao said that domestic optical microscopes are primarily used in schools rather than in labs, adding that a microscope used to teach is normally priced at 1,000 yuan, while a research microscope is 300,000 yuan.

The global market for microscopes and endoscopes is about $30 billion, and Chinese companies currently account for less than a tenth of that, Mao continued.

Some Ningbo companies have increased investments in research and development so as break into the high-end market, Mao said.

Academician Zhuang Songlin pointed out that Ningbo, despite being the largest and most robust industrial base for optical microscopes in China, would still benefit greatly from technological upgrading.