This C-drama filming location map/index covers seventeen destinations across twelve provinces and municipalities, grouped by the region you will actually travel through. Compare the dramas filmed there, travel time and passport friction, then open the full guide before you book.
How to use this: start from the drama you care about, or from the region you have already decided to visit. Each entry tells you which show it belongs to, roughly how long it takes, and whether you need a car. The full guides carry tickets, transport and costs.
Use this index in your own article
Free, reusable data: the China filming locations dataset provides JSON and CSV downloads, a source-date methodology note and a filterable iframe for your blog. Its coherent catalogue has 19 named series across the same 17 destination records; this is selected coverage, not a count of unique cities or every filming spot in China.
Want to cite it? Credit SetJetChina and retain the 13 October 2026 source snapshot date. Read the reuse and citation notes before using the statistics.
All locations on the C-drama filming location map at a glance
| Location | Province | Best known for | Time needed | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hengdian World Studios | Zhejiang | The Untamed, Joy of Life, dozens more | 2 days minimum | Easy — taxis and shuttle buses throughout |
| Ming Qing Palace | Zhejiang | Empresses in the Palace, Story of Yanxi Palace | Half a day | Hengdian uses a specific WeChat-to-passport booking process; orders including this area require a separate reservation per visitor ID. Steps + official reservation link (Hengdian facts checked 18 Oct 2026) |
| Xiangshan Film City | Zhejiang | Joy of Life’s capital, Nirvana in Fire | 1 day | Easy — Ningbo metro Line 12 since 2026 |
| Jinyun Xiandu | Zhejiang | Joy of Life 2, Lost You Forever, The Legend of Shen Li | 1–2 days | Moderate — a real 5A landscape, bus or car from Lishui |
| Yandang Mountain | Zhejiang | Nirvana in Fire | 2 days | Moderate — two scenic areas, cable car, weather-dependent |
| Hangzhou | Zhejiang | The Best Thing, and a thousand years of screen | 2 days | Easy — metro, bikes and a ¥3 water bus |
| Ningbo | Zhejiang | Fireworks of My Heart | 1–2 days | Easy — real public city locations, no studio gate |
| Shanghai & Chedun | Shanghai | Blossoms Shanghai, Rose Story | 3 days | Easy — metro plus one suburban trip |
| Wuxi Film Studios | Jiangsu | Romance of the Three Kingdoms, A Dream of Splendor | Half a day | Easy — metro from Shanghai |
| Beijing | Beijing | Rose Story, and half of Chinese television | 3–4 days | Easy — all on the metro |
| Xiangyang & Tang City | Hubei | Joy of Life, Legend of the Demon Cat | 1–2 days | Easy — high-speed rail from Wuhan |
| Dali & Shaxi | Yunnan | Meet Yourself | 4–6 days | Easy — flights to Dali, buses to Shaxi |
| Duyun & Guizhou | Guizhou | The Untamed (Cloud Recesses) | 3 days | Moderate — some sites need a car |
| Chongqing | Chongqing | The First Frost, the “8D” city | 2–3 days | Easy — metro, monorail and the river cableway |
| Xiamen | Fujian | Hidden Love | 2–3 days | Easy — metro plus a ferry to Gulangyu |
| Qingdao | Shandong | When I Fly Towards You, school dramas | 2–3 days | Easy — metro, and a signed municipal drama trail |
| Jilin & Altay (ski) | Jilin / Xinjiang | Ski into Love | 4–7 days | Harder — seasonal, flights, deep winter |
Zhejiang — the studio province on the map
No province in China has more film-town infrastructure, and no single site matters more than Hengdian. If you only do one C-drama pilgrimage, this is the one.
- Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) — the single most productive filming complex in the country. The Untamed’s Cloud Recesses interiors, Ming Qing Palace, and the Qingming Riverside set are all inside one ticketed complex. Full Hengdian guide
- Xiangshan Film City (象山影视城) — the other half of Joy of Life’s capital, an hour inland from the coast in Ningbo, and reachable by metro since Line 12 opened. Full Xiangshan guide
- Jinyun Xiandu (缙云仙都) — not a studio at all: a 170-metre stone pillar and red-cliff gorges in Lishui that supplied Joy of Life 2, Lost You Forever and The Legend of Shen Li. Full Jinyun Xiandu guide
- Yandang Mountain (雁荡山) — the volcanic geopark near Wenzhou that plays the mountain in Nirvana in Fire, with the high-speed rail station two kilometres from the gates. Full Yandang Mountain guide
- Hangzhou (杭州) — the provincial capital, which needs no set at all: the 2025 romance The Best Thing shot West Lake’s causeways, the canal lanes of Wuliu and Xiaohe, and the old canal town of Tangqi. Full Hangzhou guide
- Ningbo (宁波) — Fireworks of My Heart used the real city: the Fortune Center, Guangren Street, Tianyi Square and the Grand Theatre. One to two days, no studio ticket. Fireworks of My Heart filming locations
See also the drama-level guides: The Untamed, Joy of Life.
Hubei — Tang City and the ordered boulevards
Xiangyang’s Tang City was purpose-built for filming, which is why it reads as a lived-in Tang-dynasty city rather than a themed attraction. It is also one of the easiest filming locations in China to visit independently.
- Xiangyang Tang City (襄阳唐城) — Joy of Life’s boulevards, timber shopfronts and palace approaches. One ticket, walkable end to end in half a day. Full Xiangyang guide
Yunnan — the slow-travel heartland
Almost none of Meet Yourself was shot on a studio lot. That is exactly why the pilgrimage works: you are visiting real towns that already had a reason to exist.
- Dali (大理) — the lakeside city that anchors the drama’s first half. Erhai Lake, the old town, and the villages along the western shore.
- Shaxi (沙溪) — the restored tea-horse road town that supplies the drama’s quieter second half. Small, walkable, and best reached by bus or car from Dali.
Full Dali & Shaxi guide · Meet Yourself filming locations
Guizhou — the mist and the ridges
The Untamed’s outdoor sequences — the ones that made the show look like it was shot somewhere unreachable — come largely from Guizhou. The scenery is real, and so is the difficulty of getting between sites.
- Duyun (都匀) — the base for the province’s filming sites and the most practical place to stay.
- Outlying karst and bamboo locations — several require a car or a hired driver. Budget for it rather than assuming public transport will work.
Full Duyun & Guizhou guide · The Untamed filming locations
Shanghai — the city and its backlot
Blossoms Shanghai is a period piece about a city still within living memory. Some of its locations survive in the real city; others were rebuilt at Chedun. Knowing which is which is the entire point of the visit.
- Chedun Film Park (车墩影视基地) — the 1990s streetscape standing in for a Shanghai that has largely been redeveloped out of existence. Half a day, reached by metro plus a short taxi.
- The real city — Huanghe Road, the Bund, and the former French Concession. All walkable, all on the metro. Full Shanghai guide
See also: Blossoms Shanghai · Rose Story
Jiangsu — where the film-town idea started
Wuxi’s lakeside base opened in 1987, four years before Hengdian, and it is the reason the Chinese film town exists as a tourist model at all. It is also the easiest studio on this map to reach from Shanghai.
- Wuxi Film Studios (无锡影视基地) — the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin sets, plus the Tang-city backdrops used by A Dream of Splendor. Half a day, on the metro. Full Wuxi guide
Choosing between the big three? Hengdian vs Xiangshan vs Wuxi compares them directly.
Beijing — the city that is its own studio
Beijing is the exception on this map: the locations are not sets, they are streets. Half of Chinese television is made in the city itself, and the parts you recognise are ordinary places you can walk through.
- Rose Story (玫瑰的故事) — the 2024 hit that put Beijing’s hutongs, its CBD skyline and its university district on screen. Full Beijing guide
See also the drama-level guide: Rose Story filming locations.
Chongqing — the city that became famous on its own
Chongqing is the one place on this map that was a star before any drama used it. The vertical, neon-lit city that short video made famous is also the setting of The First Frost — and its landmarks are public, free and on the metro.
- Chongqing (重庆) — Hongya Cave, the Qiansimen Bridge, the Yangtze River Cableway and Ciqikou old town: the stops on the First Frost trail. Full Chongqing guide
Fujian — the island city that plays itself
Xiamen is a real island with a colonial waterfront, a car-free historic quarter and a subtropical climate — which is why so many modern dramas use it as shorthand for somewhere better.
- Xiamen (厦门) — the island city of Hidden Love, plus Gulangyu, the car-free island in its harbour. Full Xiamen guide
Shandong — the city that plays every school
Qingdao is the only Chinese city on this map that publishes its own drama trail: the municipal culture and tourism bureau runs three signed routes and names the productions shot along them.
- Qingdao (青岛) — red-roofed colonial streets, a working port, and the school-and-campus settings of When I Fly Towards You. Full Qingdao guide
The far north — a season, not a region
China’s ski resorts are the one entry here that is seasonal rather than geographic. Ski into Love was shot across Jilin province and Xinjiang’s Altay prefecture, and both need a winter trip rather than a detour.
- Jilin & Altay (吉林 / 阿勒泰) — the resorts behind Ski into Love, from the groomed slopes of Jilin to the deep Altay snow. Full ski guide
Before you go
Two things decide whether a filming-location trip to China works, and neither is the scenery:
| Before you go | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Visa and entry | Who qualifies for visa-free entry, and the transit rule that covers most short itineraries |
| Alipay and WeChat Pay | China is effectively cashless — set this up at home, not on arrival |
- Visa and entry — who qualifies for visa-free entry, and the transit rule that covers most short itineraries.
- Alipay and WeChat Pay — China is effectively cashless. Set this up at home, not on arrival.
Interactive destination index
The searchable index below covers all 16 destinations. Filter by drama, province or location type, then open the relevant practical guide. This is a destination directory, not a geographic basemap or route planner: the dataset records guide-level destinations, not verified filming-point coordinates. It draws no map tiles, performs no geocoding and makes no third-party API calls.
Search by drama, city or Chinese name. Filter the destination list by show, province or location type, then open the matching guide. This is a destination index, not a geographic basemap or route planner; locations are grouped at the guide/destination level, not plotted as exact filming coordinates.
| Destination | Province | Type | Drama(s) | Time | Passport friction | Guide |
|---|
Guide links contain the practical directions and current ticket/ID notes. Do not use a destination label here as a substitute for the exact address or operator instructions.
Ready to turn this map into a trip? The C-drama route planner takes the dramas you have watched and sequences these same destinations into a day-by-day itinerary — with the transport, the passport notes and a printable summary for each stop.
Not sure which of these places is yours? The drama-city quiz asks seven questions and returns one of these twelve destinations — with the dated guide to go with it.
This page and the accompanying CSV/JSON dataset are free to cite and reuse with attribution. If you quote the coverage counts or embed the index, please link to SetJetChina’s filming-locations index.
Common questions
Which location should I visit first?
If it is your first trip, start with Hengdian. It concentrates the most recognisable sets into the smallest area, and it is reachable by high-speed rail. If you would rather avoid studios entirely, start with Dali.
Do I need a car?
For Hengdian, Xiangyang, Dali and Shanghai, no. For outlying Guizhou locations, yes — or a hired driver for the day.
Can I visit these places without joining a tour?
Yes. Every location on this page is independently visitable with public transport or a taxi. That is the point of the guides.
Are these locations officially affiliated with the dramas?
No. SetJetChina is independent and unaffiliated with any studio or streaming platform. Studios are commercial attractions open to the public; they are not official fan sites.