Hengdian vs Xiangshan vs Wuxi: Which Chinese Film Studio to Visit

This is the Hengdian vs Xiangshan question — and Wuxi. Almost every historical C-drama you have watched was filmed in one of three places. They are not interchangeable, they are not close to each other, and the difference between them decides whether your trip takes one day or four. This is the page to read before you book anything.

The short answer: Hengdian (横店) is the biggest and the most complete — five ticketed zones, a high-speed rail station of its own, and two days’ worth of walking. Xiangshan (象山影视城) is the coastal one, half a day’s travel from Ningbo, and the place to go if you care about Joy of Life. Wuxi (无锡影视基地) is the oldest of the three, sitting on Lake Tai, and the only one built around live shows rather than sets alone. If you have time for exactly one, pick Hengdian. If you have a specific drama in mind, read the matching table below first — it will send you somewhere else.

The comparison, in one table

	Hengdian	Xiangshan	Wuxi
Where	Dongyang, Zhejiang — inland	Xiangshan County, Ningbo, Zhejiang — on the coast	Wuxi, Jiangsu — on Lake Tai
What it is	The largest studio complex in the world, with five separately ticketed zones	A working studio town, over 1,000 mu, with four zones that matter	China’s first film-and-tourism base, built in 1987, with three dynastic parks
Go for	Costume epics, palace drama, everything at once	Joy of Life, wuxia, coastal scenery	Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Tang-dynasty drama
Time needed	Two days minimum, three comfortably	One full day, two with the coast	One full day
Getting there	Its own high-speed rail station (Hengdian Station), opened September 2024	Ningbo Metro Line 12 to Damuwan (大目湾), then the film-city shuttle — since 22 September 2026	Bus 82 from Wuxi railway station; the park sits on the lake
Adult ticket	Date- and product-specific; check the live official Hengdian ticket flow	¥150 standard	Roughly ¥90 for Three Kingdoms City, ¥85 for Water Margin City, ¥30 for Tang City
Re-entry	One entry per zone — no coming back later	—	—
Passport friction	Official WeChat booking route: mainland friend ID → online customer service changes order details to passport; eligible orders require a separate per-ID reservation	Low. Buy at the gate	Low

Two footnotes that matter more than the table itself. At Hengdian, a ticket is not a wristband: each zone admits you once, so leaving at lunchtime and returning for the golden hour is not an option. And Wuxi’s prices above come from the operator’s ticketing partners rather than a published price list — see the tickets section below for why that distinction matters.

A third footnote: the biggest one is not in this table, on purpose. Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis is 40 sound stages on 170 hectares inside a 376-hectare development — larger than any of the three above by stage count. It is excluded here because it is not a place you walk through: there is no general admission, no self-guided route, and no backlot tram. The ticket that circulates as its admission price is an amusement-park ride pass, and the stages themselves are a factory behind a fence. If what you want is a studio you can wander, stay with Hengdian, Xiangshan or Wuxi. If what you want is to understand how the films are actually made, our Qingdao film studio guide explains the three doors and which one you are allowed through.

Hengdian: the one that has everything (Hengdian vs Xiangshan)

Hengdian is not a theme park in the Disney sense — there are no rides in the historical zones. It is a genuine production facility, one of the largest in the world, that also sells day access to tourists. That is exactly why it looks right on camera: when a drama needs the Forbidden City, it films a full-scale replica here rather than negotiating access to the real one.

Five zones sell tickets, and they are grouped into a south and a north area:

• Qinqing Palace — the palace complex, and the single most recognisable set on site
• Ming Qing Palace — the Forbidden City replica, where the Qing-dynasty court dramas are shot
• Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival — the Song-dynasty city, built from the painting
• Guangzhou Street · Hong Kong Street — the 19th-century and Republican streetscapes
• Dream Valley — the night-time park, and the one winter-season attraction that shuts entirely

It began in 1996, when the studio built an entire 19th-century Canton street in about three months so that director Xie Jin could shoot The Opium War. That street is still there. Everything since has followed the same logic: a production needs it, so the park builds it, and then keeps it.

The useful passport route. Hengdian’s official English site gives an actual booking path: start through the WeChat QR, use a mainland friend’s ID for the initial booking, then ask online customer service to replace the order details with the visitor’s passport. If the product includes any reservation-listed area, reserve separately per visitor ID. Bring the original passport shown on the updated order. The full Hengdian guide links the official reservation portal and hotline.

Getting there changed in September 2024, when the studios got their own high-speed rail station. That quietly rewrote the standard route — you no longer need to stage the trip through Yiwu or Hangzhou. The customer-service line is 0579-86569810, and tickets are sold through the park’s WeChat mini-program, 横店目的地旅游.

Xiangshan: the other half of Hengdian vs Xiangshan

Xiangshan is the quiet one. It sits in Xiangshan County on the Ningbo coast rather than inland, it is nowhere near as crowded as Hengdian, and outside major holidays it does not need advance booking at all.

It is also the honest answer for a specific kind of viewer. The Qing capital in Joy of Life was never one set — it was assembled from two, hundreds of kilometres apart: Tang City outside Xiangyang in Hubei, and this park on the Zhejiang coast. The production treated Xiangshan as a working base, camped here, and shot a large share of the capital’s streets, gateways and palace exteriors inside its walls. Xiangshan is not a Joy of Life theme park; it is a general-purpose studio town that happens to contain a great deal of the show.

Four zones matter more than the rest:

• Xiangyang City — a walled city with a water gate, a moat and a timber main street
• Spring and Autumn · Warring States City — the grandest architecture on site, built for Chen Kaige’s Orphan of Zhao
• Republic of China City — late-Qing and Republican streets, shikumen and courtyards
• Jianghu Town — wuxia-flavoured lanes, and the zone most visitors enjoy most

Getting there is the thing that changed most recently. Since 22 September 2026, Ningbo Metro Line 12 runs to Damuwan (大目湾), where a dedicated film-city shuttle finishes the trip — about 90 minutes door to door from Ningbo station. Before that, this was a taxi-or-bus journey.

Tickets and timing. The operator’s own visitor notice lists the standard adult ticket at ¥150, with half price for children 1.2–1.5 m and visitors aged 60 and over, and free entry for a long list of categories including military personnel, disabled visitors, journalists, licensed guides and visitors aged 70 and over. From 8 October 2026 the site runs a winter schedule of 08:30–16:00; summer runs longer. The operator’s hotline is 400-7113355. Allow four to five hours at a comfortable pace — the zones are spread out and the site is genuinely big.

Wuxi: the one with the lake and the horses

Wuxi is the oldest of the three and the only one that was designed to be visited from the start.

It was built in 1987 under a policy the broadcaster called “building with the drama”: China Central Television needed sets for Tang Ming Huang, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, and built three parks to house them — Tang City, Three Kingdoms City and Water Margin City. It was upgraded to a 5A-rated scenic area in 2007. The site covers about 100 hectares, with a further 200 hectares of Lake Tai water it is allowed to use.

What separates Wuxi from the other two is performance. It runs more than twenty shows a day — horse battles, dance, film-stunt demonstrations — including the “Three Heroes Fight Lü Bu” cavalry set piece that has been running for years. This is a park you watch as much as walk. There is also a boat trip out onto Lake Tai on a replica wooden vessel, which is the reason the location matters: the lake is China’s third-largest freshwater lake, and Wuxi sits on its prettiest corner.

The sets themselves are strong on three dynasties: Three Kingdoms City (the Wu palace, Ganlu Temple, the naval camps), Water Margin City (the imperial palace, Fan Tower, the Qingming riverside street, Liangshan) and Tang City (the imperial garden, Huaqing Pool, the Tang palace). There are also a “old Beijing courtyard” quarter and an “old Shanghai street”.

Getting there is straightforward: bus 82 runs from Wuxi railway station, and the park is in Binhu district on the lakeshore, at 128 Shanshui West Road. Wuxi is on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line, which makes this the easiest of the three to bolt onto a Shanghai itinerary.

Which one matches your drama

If you came for…	Go to	Because
Joy of Life (庆余年)	Xiangshan, and Xiangyang	The capital was split between the two — Xiangshan has the streets and gates, Xiangyang has Tang City
Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜)	Xiangshan	The Langya Hall sets and the wuxia zones
Empresses in the Palace / Story of Yanxi Palace	Hengdian — Ming Qing Palace	The Forbidden City replica is where the Qing court dramas are shot
The Untamed (陈情令)	Hengdian	The Cloud Recesses courtyards, plus the Guizhou locations on the Duyun page
Romance of the Three Kingdoms / Water Margin	Wuxi	These are literally the sets the parks were built to house
A Dream of Splendor (梦华录)	Wuxi — Water Margin City	The Song-dynasty streets, and the Fan Tower teahouse
Anything with a big battle in it	Wuxi or Hengdian	Wuxi’s cavalry shows; Hengdian’s scale
You do not know what you came for	Hengdian	It has the most of everything

Tickets, hours and what is free

	Hengdian	Xiangshan	Wuxi
Single adult	Check live official price by date and area	¥150 standard	~¥90 / ~¥85 / ~¥30 per park
Combination	Choose included areas and dates in the official ticket flow; some orders require a separate reservation	—	~¥150 for Three Kingdoms + Water Margin
Annual pass	¥799	—	Available
Concessions	Seniors born 1965 or earlier ~¥133; students and teachers ~¥152; children ~¥95	Half price 1.2–1.5 m and 60+; free for 70+, military, disabled, journalists, guides	Student and child rates
Buy at	WeChat mini-program 横店目的地旅游, or the gate	The gate — advance booking not usually needed	The official site or the gate
Official contact	0579-86569810	400-7113355	ctvwx.com

A note on the Wuxi figures. The operator’s own website does not publish a price list — its pages are built for on-site visitors, not for research. The numbers above come from the operator’s ticketing partners and are consistent across them, but they are indicative rather than official. Budget with a margin and buy on the official site or at the gate. By contrast, the Hengdian and Xiangshan figures are taken from each operator’s own published material.

Two more warnings. Hengdian issues filming-closure notices at short notice — in 2026 part of Qinqing Palace’s central axis was closed in sections for a production — and Dream Valley shuts entirely in the winter season. Xiangshan’s official online booking system is currently offline for an upgrade, so buy at the gate there. And at all three, prices and hours move; confirm anything you are depending on in the week before you travel.

Visiting as a foreign visitor

The three parks differ sharply in how much friction a passport creates, and it is worth choosing with that in mind.

• Hengdian has a multi-step process, but it is documented. Book through the official WeChat QR using a mainland friend’s ID; then have online customer service replace the order details with your passport. If the order includes one of six named zones, reserve separately for each visitor ID. Bring the original passport recorded on the order. See the Hengdian guide for links and details.
• Xiangshan and Wuxi are the easy ones. Both sell at the gate without a reservation outside major holidays, and neither requires advance identity registration. Xiangshan in particular is quiet enough that you can decide on the day.
• Concession documents are checked literally. Every discount category at all three requires the original supporting document at the gate. Western student cards are often not accepted; bring whatever official document your entitlement is issued on.
• Mobile payment first, cash second. Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you fly — Hengdian’s tickets live inside a WeChat mini-program, so it is not optional there.
• English signage is thin. Save the characters you will need — 横店影视城, 象山影视城, 三国城, 水浒城, 唐城 — and keep an offline translation app. Amap works better here than Western maps.
• Rail. All three are reachable by high-speed rail, and Hengdian now has a station of its own. Book with your passport number; see the high-speed rail guide.

How many days, and can you do two

One studio is a day. Hengdian is two. That is the whole arithmetic.

• Hengdian alone: two to three days. Two is the realistic minimum for the five zones, and three lets you take the evenings at Dream Valley without cutting a day short.
• Xiangshan alone: one day, plus one more if you want the coastal towns of Xiangshan County.
• Wuxi alone: one day, and it is the easiest to combine with Shanghai — under an hour by high-speed rail.
• Two studios in one trip? Only Hengdian and Xiangshan, and only with a rail day in between. They are both in Zhejiang but several hours apart; the combination is a three-day trip, not a two-day one. Do not try to add Wuxi — it is in a different province on the other side of the Yangtze delta.
• Do not chain all three. The Zhejiang film-studio route exists precisely because people underestimate these distances.

Common questions

Is Hengdian or Xiangshan better?

Hengdian is bigger, busier, more complete and easier to reach — it now has its own high-speed rail station. Xiangshan is smaller, quieter, coastal, and better for a specific set of shows, Joy of Life and Nirvana in Fire above all. If you have no particular drama in mind, Hengdian. If you do, check the matching table first.

Can I visit two studios in one trip?

Hengdian and Xiangshan, yes, with a travel day between them. Adding Wuxi turns it into a multi-province trip. All three in one go is not a realistic itinerary.

Which one has the most filming?

Hengdian, by a wide margin — it handles the largest share of China’s costume and historical production. Wuxi is the oldest, founded in 1987, and Xiangshan is the one most often used as a working base by individual productions.

Do I need to book in advance?

Hengdian: make a separate reservation if your ticket order includes any of the six areas named by the official portal; reserve separately per visitor ID. Xiangshan and Wuxi follow their own operators’ instructions. See the Hengdian guide for the current passport booking flow and reservation portal.

Is Wuxi worth it if I have seen Hengdian?

Yes, for a different reason. Wuxi is built around live performance — more than twenty shows a day, including the cavalry set pieces — rather than sets alone, and it sits on Lake Tai. It is a show, where Hengdian is a backlot.

Can I see actors filming?

Sometimes, and never on demand. Sets are closed without notice when a production is working. Treat a sighting as luck rather than an itinerary item.

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