Love Like the Galaxy Filming Locations: Where It Was Really Shot

Love Like the Galaxy (星汉灿烂) is set in a dynasty that never existed — and that is exactly why its locations are worth chasing. The show built its world in two real places a thousand miles apart: a Guizhou mountain city that doubles for an ancient capital, and the largest backlot in China. Almost every English guide mentions only one of them. Here is what the Love Like the Galaxy filming locations actually are, what the record shows, and what you can still walk through today.

The short answer: The Love Like the Galaxy filming locations come down to two studios in two provinces. In Zhejiang, Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) supplied the palace and city sets — the production’s main location was Qinqing Palace (秦王宫), the same Qin-dynasty backlot behind The Untamed and Joy of Life. In Guizhou, Duyun Qin & Han Studio City (都匀秦汉影视城) supplied the Qin-and-Han streets and the lantern-festival set; the province’s own culture and tourism authority lists the show among the more than 400 productions shot there. What the English guides get wrong is the second half — most stop at “Hengdian” and never mention Guizhou at all.

Place	Where	What it is in the show	Status
Qinqing Palace (秦王宫), Hengdian World Studios	Dongyang, Jinhua, Zhejiang	Palace halls, court and city-street sets	Confirmed — the production’s poster stands at the gate
Duyun Qin & Han Studio City (都匀秦汉影视城)	Duyun, Qiannan, Guizhou	Qin–Han streets; the lantern-festival set	Confirmed — Guizhou provincial culture and tourism authority
Hengdian’s other zones (Ming Qing Palace, Riverside Scene)	Dongyang, Jinhua, Zhejiang	Sometimes suggested by fan posts for market and palace scenes	Unconfirmed — no source we found links them to this show

Everything else you will read about this show — and there is a fair amount of it, much of it recycled — is either an inference from the screen or a straight copy of somebody else’s inference.

The two studios behind the Love Like the Galaxy filming locations

Start with the shape of the answer, because it explains why the English coverage is so thin. Love Like the Galaxy is a 2022 costume drama starring Leo Wu (吴磊) as the general Ling Buyi and Zhao Lusi (赵露思) as Cheng Shaoshang, adapted from Guan Xin Ze Luan’s novel and split into two broadcast halves — the first, 星汉灿烂, and the second, 月升沧海. It was a hit domestically and travelled widely, which is why it is on Netflix in much of the world under the title Love Like the Galaxy.

The show’s world is 架空 — a fictional dynasty, invented rather than historical, which means there is no real palace to visit and no real “Cheng family mansion.” So the locations question becomes a studio question. And the answer, unusually for a C-drama, spans two provinces:

• Zhejiang — Hengdian World Studios, and specifically Qinqing Palace, for the imperial and urban sets. This is the half everyone knows.
• Guizhou — Duyun Qin & Han Studio City, for the Qin-and-Han architecture and the show’s most-photographed sequence. This is the half the English guides leave out.

That second half is not a rumour. It is in the provincial record, and we will get to it below.

Hengdian: Qinqing Palace, the palace the show lives in

Hengdian is the easy half of the answer, and the one every English guide already gives you — so let us be specific about the part they usually leave out.

Love Like the Galaxy‘s main location was Qinqing Palace (秦王宫), one of the five ticketed zones inside Hengdian World Studios. If the name means nothing, the building will not: Qinqing Palace is the Qin-dynasty backlot that Chen Kaige’s team designed for The Assassin (荆轲刺秦王) in 1997, and it has been Chinese television’s default “imperial China” ever since. It is not a ruin and not a museum — it is a working set, and it is enormous.

The numbers are worth having because they explain why the scale on screen reads as real. Qinqing Palace covers roughly 800 mu (about 53 hectares) with some 110,000 square metres of built area, arranged as 27 palace halls. The main hall, the “Four Seas United” hall (四海归一殿), stands 44.8 metres tall and covers 17,169 square metres on its own. A city wall runs 2,289 metres around it at a height of 18 metres. Inside sits a 120-metre “Qin–Han Street” built to show the shops and lanes of the period. The whole thing is a replica of the Qin capital’s Xianyang Palace, and it was built to be filmed, not to be authentic.

For this show, that is the point. Qinqing Palace is where Love Like the Galaxy‘s palace halls, its court sequences and its city streets were shot — and the production was not shy about it. Visitors who went during the show’s 2022 run reported the drama’s poster standing at the gate, which is about as public as a filming-location confirmation gets in China.

One practical thing that surprises people: Qinqing Palace is the smallest of Hengdian’s five big zones, and there is no bike or buggy hire inside — you walk all of it, including the stairs. Two to three hours covers it comfortably. It also holds two indoor rides, 龙帝惊临 and 帝国江山, which are large-format simulators rather than thrill rides; the first is the better of the two and the queue is the reason to arrive at opening.

If you are going to Hengdian for this show specifically, Qinqing Palace is the zone. If you are going for costume drama generally, it is one of two you cannot skip — the other being the full-scale Forbidden City copy next door, which we cover in our Ming Qing Palace guide. See the current Hengdian guide for the ticket-specific reservation and passport steps.

Duyun: the half of the answer that English guides miss

Here is where the English-language coverage falls apart, and where the trip gets interesting.

Duyun (都匀) is a small highland city in southern Guizhou, in Qiannan prefecture — wet, green, misty, and about as far from a Zhejiang backlot as you can get while staying inside China. The studio outside it, Duyun Qin & Han Studio City (都匀秦汉影视城), is roughly 900 mu of Qin-and-Han architecture: more than 230 buildings, arranged as an inner city of “two palaces and one altar” — the Weiyang Palace (未央宫) and Changle Palace (长乐宫), plus a ceremonial altar — and an outer city of “four districts and five mansions,” with a 280-metre Chang’an Street built to show a Han market. It is themed, in the local phrase, on “a dream of Chang’an.”

This is not a minor operation, and it is not a guess. In February 2026 Guizhou’s provincial culture and tourism department republished a feature on the studio under the headline “from Joy of Life and The Untamed to A Step into the Past” — reporting that the site has hosted more than 400 productions and calling it the province’s “southwestern film capital.” The same piece names Love Like the Galaxy among them. That is a provincial authority, not a fan blog, putting the show at Duyun on the record.

What makes the Duyun half worth the detour is that it is not just a second palace. The studio’s most famous draw is its lantern-festival set — the 上元灯节 sequence that is the show’s most-remembered stretch of screen, and the reason the drama’s city scenes glow the way they do. Local coverage describes that set as the production’s own, rebuilt and lit for visitors, and it is the single most photographed spot at the site. Treat the “filmed here” wording as the studio’s own claim rather than an official scene-by-scene record — but the set is there, it is walkable, and it is the closest thing this show has to a pilgrimage point.

The studio’s other credits are a roll-call of the biggest costume dramas of the last decade. Joy of Life (庆余年) shot its Southern Qing capital here — the busy market streets and the official courtyards that stand in for Chang’an. The Untamed (陈情令) used it for the Huainan Prince’s residence and the noodle shop that fans still hunt for. Add The Qin Empire (大秦赋), The Rise of Phoenixes (天盛长歌), Battle Through the Heavens (斗破苍穹) and the 2025 film A Step into the Past (寻秦记), and the “southwestern film capital” billing starts to look modest rather than boastful.

And Duyun is more than the studio. The same provincial write-up points travellers to Doupeng Mountain (斗篷山), a national forest park of waterfalls and old forest, and to Luosike (螺蛳壳), the ridge of waterfalls and tea terraces that The Untamed made famous. In town, Stone Slab Street (石板街) is the old Ming-and-Qing quarter for silverwork and snacks, and Xishan Bridge (西山大桥) is the lit-up riverside spot that the film A Cool Fish (无名之辈) turned into a photo stop. We cover the city, the mountains and the practicalities in our Duyun guide.

The Love Like the Galaxy filming locations English guides list that we could not confirm

This section exists because the English-language record for this show is unusually thin, and thin records get filled with invention.

Search for the show’s locations in English and you will mostly find one word: Hengdian. That much is right, and it is where the coverage stops. Very little of it mentions Guizhou at all, which means the more interesting half of the answer is simply absent — not wrong, absent. If you are building a trip from English sources alone, you will miss it.

Where English and Chinese sources do diverge, here is our read:

• “Hengdian, full stop.” — accurate as far as it goes, but incomplete. The show also shot in Guizhou, and the province says so. Do not treat Hengdian as the whole answer.
• Specific scene-to-spot maps on social media. — posts that pin an exact frame to an exact courtyard circulate widely, and some are plausible. None of them is an official record. We treat them as reported, not confirmed, and so should you.
• The “Cheng family mansion” and other in-show addresses. — these do not exist. The dynasty is fictional, so the houses were built, not found. Any guide that gives you an address for one is guessing.
• Other studio names (Xiangshan, a “Tang–Song district,” and so on). — plausible neighbours, since Hengdian and Xiangshan share crews and styles. We found no source tying any of them to this production. Unconfirmed.

None of this is a reason to distrust the show. It is a reason to distrust the list — and to notice that a missing half is harder to spot than a wrong entry. Our rule is the same as everywhere on this site: if we cannot find it in the Chinese record, we do not send you there.

Two provinces, 1,600 km: how to actually do this

Here is the honest catch, and the reason the Love Like the Galaxy filming locations are a bigger trip than they look. Hengdian is in Zhejiang, on the east coast near Shanghai. Duyun is in Guizhou, in the country’s mountainous south-west. They are roughly 1,600 km apart — a two-and-a-half-hour flight or a long day on the rails. Nobody is doing both in a weekend, and any guide that implies otherwise has not looked at a map.

So treat them as two separate trips, each worth doing on its own:

1. Hengdian, as a Zhejiang add-on. Fly into Hangzhou or Shanghai, then take the train to Hengdian Station — the studio’s own high-speed rail stop, which opened in September 2024 — and the light rail to the gate. Qinqing Palace is a half-day; give the park two days if you also want the Ming Qing Palace and the Riverside Scene. This is the easy version of the trip.
2. Duyun, as a Guizhou trip. Fly into Guiyang, then take the high-speed rail south to Duyun — about an hour. The studio is roughly ten minutes from the city centre. Build in a second day for Doupeng Mountain and Luosike, which is where the misty, vertical Guizhou of the big costume dramas actually lives.

If you only ever do one, and you are chasing the show rather than the scenery, do Duyun. It is the half you have not seen in every other guide — and the lantern set is the one place on this map that exists because of a sequence like the show’s.

Tickets, hours, and how to get in

Prices in China move, and this page is not a booking engine. What follows is what the studios and their local ticketing channels were quoting when we last checked; confirm on the official channel before you travel.

• Hengdian — Qinqing Palace. Hengdian is ticketed by area, not as one park. Qinqing Palace is on the operator’s reservation list: if your ticket order includes it, make the separate reservation for each visitor ID. Check the live ticket price for your date. The Hengdian guide has the official passport booking process and reservation link.
• Duyun Qin & Han Studio City. Adult day admission is around ¥60, and Duyun residents pay a reduced ¥20 — a local subsidy worth knowing if you are staying in town. Opening hours are 09:00–18:30 from November to March and 09:00–19:00 from April to October; the studio also runs evening sessions and seasonal events, so the day ticket is not always the whole story.
• Duyun discounts. Children under 1.2 m enter free, as do visitors over 70, serving military and visitors with disabilities on production of ID. Students and visitors aged 60–70 pay half. On Teachers’ Day (10 September) teachers enter free with proof of profession. These are standard Chinese scenic-area categories — bring the original documents, because photocopies are not accepted.
• Getting to the Duyun studio. From Duyun railway station, bus 22 runs to the studio terminus (the stop is signposted 汉唐影视城) for about ¥4; a taxi or Didi from the city centre is roughly ¥50 and takes ten minutes.

Buying as a visitor from outside China: for Hengdian, use the official WeChat booking instructions: book initially with a mainland friend’s ID, then contact online customer service to replace the order details with your passport. If your order includes Qinqing Palace or another listed area, reserve separately for each visitor ID. For Duyun Qin & Han Studio City, follow that operator’s own booking and admission instructions; do not assume Hengdian’s rules apply. Hengdian official links and full steps.

Common questions

Where was Love Like the Galaxy filmed?

At two studios in two provinces. The palace and city sets were shot at Hengdian World Studios in Zhejiang, mainly at Qinqing Palace. The Qin-and-Han streets and the lantern-festival set were shot at Duyun Qin & Han Studio City in Guizhou. Both are on the record; most English guides mention only the first.

Was Love Like the Galaxy filmed in Hengdian?

Yes — Hengdian was the production’s main location, and Qinqing Palace specifically. The show’s poster stood at the palace gate during its 2022 run, and Qinqing Palace is the zone to head for if you are visiting for this drama.

Was Love Like the Galaxy filmed in Guizhou?

Yes. Guizhou’s provincial culture and tourism authority lists Love Like the Galaxy among the more than 400 productions shot at Duyun Qin & Han Studio City, in Qiannan prefecture. The studio’s lantern-festival set — the show’s signature sequence — is the main draw there.

Is the Cheng family home a real place?

No. The show’s dynasty is fictional, so its mansions, streets and palaces were built rather than found. There is no address to visit; what you can visit are the sets that stood in for them.

Is Love Like the Galaxy on Netflix?

Yes — it is available on Netflix in a number of regions, as well as on WeTV and Viu, under the English title Love Like the Galaxy. Availability varies by country, so check your own catalogue.

How many days do I need?

Two days for Hengdian, and two for Duyun — but not back to back. They are 1,600 km apart, so pick one province per trip and give it a proper two days rather than trying to bolt them together.

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