China's cultural industry saw rapid growth in the first half of 2016. Official data released Friday showed that the combined revenue in the sector was up 7.9 percent year on year to 3.62 trillion yuan.

The National Bureau of Statistics tracks some 48 thousand companies in 10 sectors of the cultural industry. That includes six sectors engaged in cultural services and four in the manufacturing of cultural products.

The NBS says said the cultural service sector saw faster growth than manufacturing, with the revenues of information transmission services surging the most at 29.7 percent.

The NBS also says China's eastern regions were more developed, and contributed 75 percent of the total cultural revenue in the first.