According to React doc: https://reactjs.org/docs/faq-internals.html#what-is-the-virtual-dom

‘In React world, the term “virtual DOM” is usually associated with React elements since they are the objects representing the user interface. ‘

import React, { Component } from 'react'; //You need to do this inside a module to import

class App extends Component{
   render(){
       return (
       <button>Hi</button> //This returns a virtual DOM
       )
   }
}

The code inside return is actually a call to function React.createElement:

//render can be rewritten like this:
render(){
   return [
            React.createElement(
                'button',
                {
                    key: null,
                    ref: null,           
                },
                'Hi',
            )
   ]
}

which returns something like this:

{
  $$typeof: Symbol.for('react.element'), 
  type: "button", 
  key: null, 
  ref: null, 
  props: { 
     children: 'Hi',
  }
}

and this is virtual DOM. It’s an JavaScript object which costs much less to manipulate than the actual DOM element created by

document.createElement('button');

which is also a JavaScript object looks like this:

accessKey: ""
ariaAtomic: null
ariaAutoComplete: null
ariaBusy: null
ariaChecked: null
ariaColCount: null
ariaColIndex: null
ariaColSpan: null
ariaCurrent: null
ariaDescription: null
ariaDisabled: null
ariaExpanded: null
ariaHasPopup: null
ariaHidden: null
ariaKeyShortcuts: null
ariaLabel: null
ariaLevel: null
ariaLive: null
ariaModal: null
ariaMultiLine: null
ariaMultiSelectable: null
ariaOrientation: null
ariaPlaceholder: null
ariaPosInSet: null
ariaPressed: null
ariaReadOnly: null
ariaRelevant: null
ariaRequired: null
ariaRoleDescription: null
ariaRowCount: null
ariaRowIndex: null
ariaRowSpan: null
ariaSelected: null
ariaSetSize: null
ariaSort: null
ariaValueMax: null
ariaValueMin: null
ariaValueNow: null
ariaValueText: null
assignedSlot: null
attributeStyleMap: StylePropertyMap {size: 0}
attributes: NamedNodeMap {length: 0}
autocapitalize: ""
autofocus: false
baseURI: "http://localhost:3000/"
childElementCount: 0
childNodes: NodeList []
children: HTMLCollection []
classList: DOMTokenList [value: ""]
className: ""
clientHeight: 0
clientLeft: 0
clientTop: 0
clientWidth: 0
contentEditable: "inherit"
dataset: DOMStringMap {}
dir: ""
disabled: false
draggable: false
elementTiming: ""
enterKeyHint: ""
firstChild: null
firstElementChild: null
form: null
formAction: "http://localhost:3000/"
formEnctype: ""
formMethod: ""
formNoValidate: false
formTarget: ""
hidden: false
id: ""
innerHTML: ""
innerText: ""
inputMode: ""
isConnected: false
isContentEditable: false
labels: NodeList []
lang: ""
lastChild: null
lastElementChild: null
localName: "button"
name: ""
namespaceURI: "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
nextElementSibling: null
nextSibling: null
nodeName: "BUTTON"
nodeType: 1
nodeValue: null
nonce: ""
offsetHeight: 0
offsetLeft: 0
offsetParent: null
offsetTop: 0
offsetWidth: 0
onabort: null
onanimationend: null
onanimationiteration: null
onanimationstart: null
onauxclick: null
onbeforecopy: null
onbeforecut: null
onbeforepaste: null
onbeforexrselect: null
onblur: null
oncancel: null
oncanplay: null
oncanplaythrough: null
onchange: null
onclick: null
onclose: null
oncontextmenu: null
oncopy: null
oncuechange: null
oncut: null
ondblclick: null
ondrag: null
ondragend: null
ondragenter: null
ondragleave: null
ondragover: null
ondragstart: null
ondrop: null
ondurationchange: null
onemptied: null
onended: null
onerror: null
onfocus: null
onformdata: null
onfullscreenchange: null
onfullscreenerror: null
ongotpointercapture: null
oninput: null
oninvalid: null
onkeydown: null
onkeypress: null
onkeyup: null
onload: null
onloadeddata: null
onloadedmetadata: null
onloadstart: null
onlostpointercapture: null
onmousedown: null
onmouseenter: null
onmouseleave: null
onmousemove: null
onmouseout: null
onmouseover: null
onmouseup: null
onmousewheel: null
onpaste: null
onpause: null
onplay: null
onplaying: null
onpointercancel: null
onpointerdown: null
onpointerenter: null
onpointerleave: null
onpointermove: null
onpointerout: null
onpointerover: null
onpointerrawupdate: null
onpointerup: null
onprogress: null
onratechange: null
onreset: null
onresize: null
onscroll: null
onsearch: null
onseeked: null
onseeking: null
onselect: null
onselectionchange: null
onselectstart: null
onstalled: null
onsubmit: null
onsuspend: null
ontimeupdate: null
ontoggle: null
ontransitionend: null
onvolumechange: null
onwaiting: null
onwebkitanimationend: null
onwebkitanimationiteration: null
onwebkitanimationstart: null
onwebkitfullscreenchange: null
onwebkitfullscreenerror: null
onwebkittransitionend: null
onwheel: null
outerHTML: "<button></button>"
outerText: ""
ownerDocument: document
parentElement: null
parentNode: null
part: DOMTokenList [value: ""]
prefix: null
previousElementSibling: null
previousSibling: null
scrollHeight: 0
scrollLeft: 0
scrollTop: 0
scrollWidth: 0
shadowRoot: null
slot: ""
spellcheck: true
style: CSSStyleDeclaration {alignContent: "", alignItems: "", alignSelf: "", alignmentBaseline: "", all: "", …}
tabIndex: 0
tagName: "BUTTON"
textContent: ""
title: ""
translate: true
type: "submit"
validationMessage: ""
validity: ValidityState {valueMissing: false, typeMismatch: false, patternMismatch: false, tooLong: false, tooShort: false, …}
value: ""
willValidate: true

You can learn more about virtual DOM and React at https://indepth.dev/inside-fiber-in-depth-overview-of-the-new-reconciliation-algorithm-in-react/