Phot. provided by Hengdian Studios
Have you ever watched any Chinese movie or drama that takes place in a historical setting? Have you ever wondered where the scenes were shot? The answer might surprise you, as they were not taken in Beijing, but in a small city in Zhejiang province. Welcome to Hengdian – Chinese Hollywood and the biggest film studio in Asia!
Hengdian is a town in Zhejiang province, located around 1h drive from Yiwu. In 1990’s, when the construction of the World Studio began, the area was pretty much just a farmland. Nowadays it’s a place to one of the biggest film studios in the world and around ¼ of Hengdian residents are somehow involved in filmmaking. That town’s entire business revolves around film industry and related to it tourism. Walking around the town it’s not uncommon to meet actors, or simply people dressed in some historical clothes. Apparently walking down one of Hengdian streets, dressed as a person from some historical period, is a thing in here. There actually are quite a few shops there selling those kinds of clothes.
The biggest attraction though, are various movie sets scattered across the town. Among others, there are: a replica of the Palace of Emperor Qin (the Movie ‘Hero’ was made here), the Palace of Ming and Qing dynasties and the Hong Kong Street. The ones that our group had a chance to visit (thanks to the event called DAKA CHINA) were Qing Ming Shang He Tu (movie set and scenic spot from Song dynasty) and the Dream Valley (an amusement park with a very spectacular water show).
Qing Ming Shang He Tu
This scenic area recreates the capital from Song Dynasty. You can walk around the lake, among old looking buildings and people dressed in the historical clothes. Crossing paths with some actors that are currently shooting some drama, isn’t uncommon either. The area has also a stage where you can watch different kind of shows (including Chinese opera). The entrance to the whole area costs 300 RMB (~47$). Those with deeper pockets can decide to try shooting their own short movie. The experience has to be booked beforehand and includes costume rental, professional makeup and hair styling, as well as the movie crew that would turn you into actors for one day. As I, and a group of another 20 bloggers, were introduced to this experience thanks to the event called DakaChina (international social media event), we were lucky enough to have this experience for free. Otherwise, the movie experience is a whooping cost of around 10.000RMB (over 1500$) per group.
Our group has recorded a few scenes from ‘The Dream of the Red Mansion’ – classical Chinese story. We were dressed in traditional clothes. They put more make up on us than I’ve worn in my entire life and they did some unbelievable things with our hair. They put some special rolls, which were supposed to add volume to our hairstyle (nowadays we generally have too short hair to recreate old style haircuts – that’s why we had to use plenty of fake hair and hairpins). I think that after the stylists have finished with me, I had close to 1kg of fake hair and pins on my head. Pretty much everyone’s first reaction was… OMG it’s so heavy 😉. The whole experience (styling and shooting) took close to 2 hours. Two days later we have received the edited movie.
Qing Ming Shang He Tu
This scenic area recreates the capital from Song Dynasty. You can walk around the lake, among old looking buildings and people dressed in the historical clothes. Crossing paths with some actors that are currently shooting some drama, isn’t uncommon either. The area has also a stage where you can watch different kind of shows (including Chinese opera). The entrance to the whole area costs 300 RMB (~47$). Those with deeper pockets can decide to try shooting their own short movie. The experience has to be booked beforehand and includes costume rental, professional makeup and hair styling, as well as the movie crew that would turn you into actors for one day. As I, and a group of another 20 bloggers, were introduced to this experience thanks to the event called DakaChina (international social media event), we were lucky enough to have this experience for free. Otherwise, the movie experience is a whooping cost of around 10.000RMB (over 1500$) per group.
Our group has recorded a few scenes from ‘The Dream of the Red Mansion’ – classical Chinese story. We were dressed in traditional clothes. They put more make up on us than I’ve worn in my entire life and they did some unbelievable things with our hair. They put some special rolls, which were supposed to add volume to our hairstyle (nowadays we generally have too short hair to recreate old style haircuts – that’s why we had to use plenty of fake hair and hairpins). I think that after the stylists have finished with me, I had close to 1kg of fake hair and pins on my head. Pretty much everyone’s first reaction was… OMG it’s so heavy 😉. The whole experience (styling and shooting) took close to 2 hours. Two days later we have received the edited movie.
The Dream Valley Amusement Park
Judging by the maps I managed to spot here and there, the area is quite big with some typical attractions like Ferris wheel and a waterpark. We only went there for the Flood Show though. The show was based on Nuo opera. Nuo is an old (like a few thousand years old), shamanic religion from China which strongly focuses on exercising evil spirits and petitioning the goods for good fortune. The rituals included dancing and wearing masks. With time, the shamanic rituals evolved into masked drama. The show that we saw combined various types of dances (presumably calling for the rainstorm), performed by masked actors, with some special effects (fountains, lights, lighting). At the end, the stage was literally flooded by a massive amount of water that was suddenly released from the top of the ‘mountain’. It really made a huge impression especially that we were close enough to feel cool breeze coming from the stage. The first rows even had to wear the raincoats during the show.
The only regret I have left after this trip is that we didn’t have too much time to go sightseeing on our own. I really wish we had more free time to just walk around and take more photos. Besides that, I think that Hengdian is a grate idea for having fun on weekend or during holidays. It’s also easy to get to. Just get to Yiwu or Jinhua by train and then take a bus from the bus station to Hengdian. Easy 😊.
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