You did not watch these shows for the geography. You watched them for the people, the courtyards, the impossible mountains — and then you wanted to stand in them. That is what this page is for — an index of C-drama filming locations by show, so you can start from the drama you already love.
The short answer: Forty-eight dramas, forty-five guides, and one honest question — how hard is it to actually go? Some of these pilgrimages are a weekend; some are a ten-day expedition across three provinces. The list below is ordered so you can tell the difference before you book anything.
Every guide is organised the way you actually remember a show: by name, by the moments that stayed with you. Pick the drama. We will tell you where it was shot, how to get there without a tour, what it costs, and what nobody warns you about.
What a C-drama filming location actually means here
Before you pick a show, one thing is worth knowing: a C-drama location is rarely one place. It is usually three, and they are not interchangeable.
- Studio sets — purpose-built parks like Hengdian and Tang City, where the palaces and courtyards were constructed and filmed. These are ticketed attractions, they are built for visitors, and they are the most reliable thing you can plan around.
- Real locations — actual streets, lakes, old towns and mountains that the production used as-is. This is what makes Meet Yourself so satisfying, and what makes Guizhou’s ridges worth the drive.
- Sets that no longer exist — interiors dressed for a shoot and then struck, or buildings since demolished. Blossoms Shanghai is full of these, which is why that guide spends as much time telling you what you cannot see.
Every guide below is explicit about which is which, because it changes what you are actually travelling for. A pilgrimage to a studio is a visit to a museum of a world. A pilgrimage to a real town is a visit to the world itself.
Browse C-drama filming locations by show
Which one should you chase first?
The honest answer is that Meet Yourself is the easiest place to start, and it is not close. Almost none of it was shot on a studio set — it is real Yunnan towns, a real lake and a real mountain, all reachable by public transport. If it is your first trip to China, or your first trip anywhere in Asia, start there. The drama will do the rest.
Love Like the Galaxy is the one with the longest tail: a 2022 show still being discovered on Netflix, whose locations split across two provinces most guides never connect. Do it as two trips rather than one — Hengdian for the palace sets, Duyun for the half nobody writes about.
The Best Thing is the easy one. A 2025 romance shot entirely in Hangzhou, with no studio layer and no invented city — West Lake’s causeways, two canal lanes and a canal town reached by metro and a ¥3 boat. If you want to see how a modern C-drama uses a real city, start here.
If you want the most recognisable locations per day of travel, start with The Untamed. Roughly eighty percent of the show was shot at one studio complex, which makes it the most achievable big-name pilgrimage in China — you are not chasing scattered locations, you are walking through the sets themselves. Pair it with Guizhou only if you have the time; that half is the better-looking half but also the harder one.
Joy of Life and Swords Into Plowshares are for people who like a city attached to their set. Xiangyang is a real place with a real wall and a purpose-built Tang city beside it; Zhejiang’s Wuyue Kingdom locations are strung across six cities you can reach by rail. Both reward a slower trip.
Blossoms Shanghai is the odd one out: it is the only guide here where the locations are just the city you are already in. You do not need a plan, a car or a translator — you need two evenings and comfortable shoes. Rose Story works the same way across Beijing and Shanghai.
And Lost You Forever is the one to save. It is the most location-heavy of the recent epics, spread across provinces that do not connect neatly, and it rewards the most planning. Do it second or third, once you are comfortable moving around China on your own.
Nirvana in Fire and A Dream of Splendor are the two additions for people who came for the classics. Neither is a single-place pilgrimage: the first splits between a real mountain on the Zhejiang coast and a studio near Ningbo, the second between a lake in Jiangsu and Hengdian. Both sit on the same rail corridor as the studios, so they pair naturally with a Hengdian trip.
Pursuit of Jade is the newest addition, and the one with the thinnest English-language coverage. Its locations are real rather than invented: two Zhejiang counties, Xianju and Xinchang, with the studio layer at Hengdian in between. If you are travelling in 2026, this is the one where you will be ahead of the crowd.
A practical note on ordering: these guides assume you are arriving from outside China, and that Shanghai is your entry point. It usually is, because Hongqiao is the hub the whole rail network radiates from. That means the natural first pilgrimage is almost always Blossoms Shanghai or Meet Yourself — one is the city you landed in, the other is a short flight or a long rail hop from it.
Whichever you choose, budget for one unplanned day. Filming locations are outdoor places, the weather is not negotiable, and the single most common mistake fans make is flying home the morning after their only attempt at a shot. Build in the buffer and you will almost never need it.
The guides, by difficulty
| Drama | Where it was shot | Realistic time | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meet Yourself | Dali & Shaxi, Yunnan | 4–6 days | Easiest — all real towns, no studio |
| Blossoms Shanghai | Shanghai · Chedun Film Park | 2–3 days | Easy — a walkable city |
| The Untamed | Hengdian, Zhejiang · Duyun, Guizhou | 3–5 days | Moderate — one studio, then mountains |
| Joy of Life | Xiangyang, Hubei · Hengdian | 4 days | Moderate — needs a rail leg |
| Rose Story | Beijing · Shanghai | 4 days | Moderate — two big cities |
| Nirvana in Fire | Yandang Shan, Zhejiang · Xiangshan, Ningbo | 3 days | Moderate — a real mountain plus a studio |
| A Dream of Splendor | Wuxi, Jiangsu · Hengdian, Zhejiang | 2 days | Moderate — needs a rail leg |
| Pursuit of Jade | Xianju & Xinchang, Zhejiang · Hengdian | 4 days | Moderate — two real counties |
| Swords Into Plowshares | Six cities across Zhejiang | 4 days | Harder — locations are strung out |
| Love Like the Galaxy | Hengdian, Zhejiang · Duyun, Guizhou | 4 days (per province) | Moderate — two provinces, 1,600 km apart |
| The Best Thing | Hangzhou, Zhejiang | 2 days | Easy — one city, no studio |
| Fireworks of My Heart | Ningbo, Zhejiang | 1–2 days | Easiest — a city, no studio |
| Lost You Forever | Hengdian · multiple provinces | Allow a week | Hardest — the most planning |
| Will Love in Spring | Quanzhou, Fujian | 2 days | Easy — a city, no studio |
| The Love You Give Me | Shenzhen, Guangdong | 2 days | Easy — a big city plus one peninsula day |
| The Knockout | Jiangmen, Guangdong | 1–2 days | Easy — a walkable old town |
| My Altay | Altay, Xinjiang | 3–4 days | Moderate — a car and a border pass |
| All Is Well | Suzhou, Jiangsu | 2 days | Easy — a walkable old town and one lake |
| The Bond | Nanjing, Jiangsu | 2 days | Easy — a walkable walled old city |
| Forever and Ever | Xi’an, Shaanxi | 2–3 days | Easy — everything is on the metro |
| The Long Season | Kunming, Yunnan | 3–4 days | Moderate — industrial sites, plus a day out to Anning |
| A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower | Chengdu, Sichuan | 3–4 days | Easy — a metro city, plus bookable day trips |
| Escape from the Trilateral Slopes | Xishuangbanna, Yunnan | 3–4 days | Moderate — long road transfers to the rainforest parks |
| Burning Ice | Harbin, Heilongjiang | 3–4 days | Easy — a walkable centre, plus a seasonal ice festival |
| Raise the Red Lantern | Qi County & Pingyao, Shanxi | 2–3 days | Easy — high-speed rail from Taiyuan, then on foot |
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | Anji & Hongcun, Zhejiang & Anhui | 3–4 days | Easy — high-speed rail, then a bus into the villages |
| A Lifelong Journey | Changchun, Jilin | 2–3 days | Easy — high-speed rail and metro |
| Liu Sanjie | Guilin & Yangshuo, Guangxi | 3–4 days | Easy — high-speed rail and river boat |
| Journey to the West | Zhangjiajie, Hunan | 3–4 days | Moderate — flights or high-speed rail, then park shuttle buses |
| Luoyang | Luoyang, Henan | 2–3 days | Easy — high-speed rail on the Zhengzhou–Xi’an line |
| Goodbye My Princess | Dunhuang, Gansu | 2–3 days | Moderate — flights or rail, then long drives for the western desert |
| Ash Is Purest White | Datong, Shanxi | 2 days | Easy — high-speed rail from Beijing in under 2 hours |
| Red Sorghum | Yinchuan, Ningxia | 2 days | Easy — direct high-speed rail from Beijing since December 2025 |
| I Am Not Madame Bovary | Wuyuan, Jiangxi | 2 days | Easy — high-speed rail from Shanghai in about 3 hours |
| Journey to the West (1986) | Wuyishan, Fujian | 2 days | Easy — high-speed rail on the Hefei–Fuzhou line |
| Goodbye Mr. Loser | Dalian, Liaoning | 2 days | Easy — direct flights, or high-speed rail from Beijing in about 4 hours |
| My Fair Princess | Wulanbutong, Inner Mongolia | 2 days | Hard — about 6 hours by road from Beijing, no rail access |
| Reblooming Blue | Jingdezhen, Jiangxi | 2 days | Easy — high-speed rail from Shanghai in 4–5 hours |
| The Wrath of Time: Xiangxi | Enshi, Hubei | 3 days | Moderate — high-speed rail to Enshi, then a car for the outlying sites |
| The Knot | Yunshuiyao, Fujian | 2 days | Easy — high-speed rail to Nanjing station, then bus 6 |
| Amazing Detective Di Renjie | Zhangye, Gansu | 2 days | Moderate — high-speed rail to Zhangye, then 40 km of desert |
| Time Flows Like Water | Wuzhen, Zhejiang | 1–2 days | Easy — high-speed rail to Tongxiang, then a local bus |
| I Belonged to You | Daocheng Yading, Sichuan | 2 days | Hard — 4,411 m on landing; acclimatisation is the constraint |
| My Fair Princess | Chengde Mountain Resort, Hebei | 2 days | Easy — 49 minutes by high-speed rail, but the tower carries no signage |
Not sure which region suits you? The regional guide groups every location on this site into five areas and tells you how to reach each one — that is usually the faster way to decide than picking a drama first.
Before you book anything
Whatever you pick, two things come first. Read our visa and entry guide and set up Alipay or WeChat Pay. Those are the only genuinely hard parts of travelling in China as a foreigner — the dramas, and the places they were shot in, are the easy part.
Still deciding how long to go for? How many days do you need matches five, seven, ten and fourteen-day trips to the shows they can actually cover.