Walk the actual sets, streets and landscapes where your favourite C-dramas were 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
Love Like the Galaxy Filming Locations: Where It Was Really Shot Read More »
Pursuit of Jade (逐玉) looks expensive without trying to, and the reason is geographic. It is a 2026 costume drama that swapped green screen for a real Chinese county most foreign fans cannot place on a map — which is why the Pursuit of Jade filming locations are worth a trip, and also why so
Pursuit of Jade Filming Locations: Where It Was Really Shot Read More »
You have seen the Forbidden City a hundred times. Not the real one. The real one has not let a drama crew inside since the 1980s — so every concubine, every poisoning, every endless courtyard you remember was shot somewhere else, in Zhejiang, on a copy built to the same measurements. That copy is the
Hengdian’s Ming Qing Palace: The Forbidden City You Have Actually Seen Read More »
There is a line early in A Dream of Splendor about throwing money into West Lake. The lake the camera is actually looking at is 200 km away, in Wuxi, and it is called Taihu. That single substitution tells you almost everything about how this show was made — and it is the reason the
A Dream of Splendor Filming Locations: Lake Tai, Not West Lake Read More »
There is a real Langya Mountain in China. It is in Chuzhou, Anhui, it has a pavilion that Ouyang Xiu wrote a famous essay about in 1046, and it has nothing to do with Nirvana in Fire. The show’s Langya Mountain is a fiction — and the cliffs, mist and waterfalls that stood in for
Nirvana in Fire Filming Locations: Finding the Real Langya Mountain Read More »
I still remember the exact moment I got hooked. It wasn’t the palace intrigue or the razor-sharp dialogue — it was a single shot of golden canola fields stretching to the horizon, two figures walking through them like they owned the world. I paused the episode, opened a map, and started planning. That’s how Joy
Chasing Fan Xian Across China: The Joy of Life Filming Locations Read More »
The Guizhou leg, in order Route map: Guiyang, Duyun East, Qin-Han Movie and TV City, Luosike Mountain1Guiyang (KWE) — arrivalFly in; most international routes connect via Shanghai, Beijing or Hong Kong2Guiyang North → Duyun EastHigh-speed rail, ~45 min, about ¥70 (~US$10)3Qin-Han Movie & TV City (都匀秦汉影视城)Clan courtyards and white stone corridors — a taxi from
Finding the Real Cloud Recesses: The Untamed in Guizhou Read More »
The Untamed route through Hengdian Route map: Palace of Emperor Qin, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Dream Valley1Palace of Emperor Qin (秦王宫)Koi Tower · the 99 steps at 四海归一殿 — go by day2Riverside Scene at Qingming FestivalNightless City and Yi City — courtyards dressed in red light and fog3Dream Valley (梦幻谷)Caiyi Town — the water-town
The Untamed in Hengdian: A Scene-by-Scene Photo Guide Read More »
If you have been swept up in the golden-hued nostalgia of Blossoms Shanghai (繁花) — the critically acclaimed 2023 TV drama directed by Wong Kar-wai — you are not alone. Set in the roaring 1990s Shanghai business world, the show turned the city itself into a character. The good news? Almost every iconic backdrop is
Blossoms Shanghai Walking Route: A Self-Guided Tour Through 1990s Shanghai Read More »
Blossoms Shanghai (繁花, Fán Huā) is a period piece about a period that is still within living memory — Shanghai in the late 1980s and early 1990s — which makes its Blossoms Shanghai filming locations unusually complicated. Some are real and still standing. Some were rebuilt on a backlot because the originals are gone. And
Blossoms Shanghai Filming Locations: The 1990s City That No Longer Exists Read More »
