Let’s be honest: once you fall down the C-drama rabbit hole, there is no climbing back out. This is how that happened to me — and why I built SetJetChina.
It usually starts with one random recommendation on Netflix or YouTube. For me, that show was The Untamed.
I remember finishing the final episode at 3 AM, staring at the screen, feeling that familiar mix of awe and post-drama depression. I didn’t just want to watch the story. I wanted to live inside it — to see those mist-covered mountains, walk the stone bridges of Gusu, and stand on the steps of the Imperial Palace.
Then I tried to find out where those places actually were, and hit a wall.
Why SetJetChina exists
There is almost nothing on the internet dedicated to C-drama filming locations. There are millions of travel blogs about the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, and almost none written for the person who just finished a 40-episode historical epic and wants to stand where it was shot. What does exist is either not in English, or buried in Chinese-language forums that assume you already know the geography.
So the gap isn’t really about travel information. It’s the gap between watching a C-drama and experiencing China. International fans get stuck on the same handful of practical questions long before they get stuck on anything cultural: How do I pay without a credit card? Do I need a VPN? How do I tell a taxi driver where to go if I don’t speak Mandarin? Which of these locations is actually reachable, and which one was a set that has already been struck?
That last question is the one nobody answers. A drama will show you a mountain ridge, a courtyard, a river bend — and give you no way of knowing whether it is a real place you can visit, a studio backlot you can buy a ticket to, or a composite of three locations stitched together in post-production. Working that out is the whole job of this site.
What you will find here
- Filming location guides by drama — one page per series, breaking down every location we can verify: what was filmed there, what is still standing, and how to get there without joining a tour.
- Guides by location — the same places, organised the other way round, for people who want to pick a destination first and find the dramas afterwards.
- Trip planning — the infrastructure that decides whether the trip happens at all: visas, mobile payment, apps that work in China, high-speed rail, and when to go.
- The filming location map — every place we cover, plotted and filterable by drama, by province, and by how hard it is to reach.
How we work
Two things are worth knowing before you trust a page on this site.
First, we check things rather than repeat them. Ticket prices, opening hours, train connections and visa rules all change, and most travel content about China is copied from other travel content about China. We go to primary sources — official scenic-area sites, tourism bureaus, transport operators — and we write down what we cannot confirm instead of guessing.
Second, we use AI in the production process, and we say so. Drafting, translation from Chinese-language sources and data structuring are partly AI-assisted. Every page is reviewed before publication, and factual claims are checked by a human editor. If a page here is wrong, that is our error, not the tool’s.
The full editorial policy — including our photo licensing rules and how to send us a correction — is on the About page.
Where to start
If you are planning your first trip, read 10 essential tips for your first C-drama pilgrimage first — it covers the things that are genuinely hard to fix once you have landed.
If you already know which show you are chasing, go straight to its guide. The most achievable pilgrimage in China is The Untamed, because roughly 80% of it was shot inside a single studio complex you can buy a ticket to. Joy of Life is the next easiest. Meet Yourself needs the least planning of all — it is almost entirely real towns in Yunnan.
Tell us what we are missing
So, welcome to the journey. We are just getting started.
I would genuinely like to know two things: what was your gateway drama, and which location do you most want to stand in? Both answers change what we write next — if enough people ask about a location we have not covered, it moves up the list.
Send it to us at aimervoyage@gmail.com, or use the map to find the one nearest to you. Let’s turn that dream list into an itinerary.
The SetJetChina Team
Your next move
Worried about the practical stuff?
Visas, payment, trains and the apps you’ll need before you land — the four things you cannot work out on the ground. Each guide is dated and sourced.
Ready to go?
Ready to pick a place? The region guide is the map; the planning hub is the practical side.
Ready to plan it? Turn the dramas you have watched into a day-by-day route with the C-drama route planner.
Not sure where to start? Take the drama-city quiz — seven questions, one city, and a route waiting at the end.