City guide · Zhejiang
A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
Everyone has a dream of travelling back through time — to be a prince, a princess, a scholar, a beauty. When those people appear on the screen the whole picture seems to glitter, and we wish we were one of them. And here is a dream factory that makes the fantasy real. This is Hengdian.
'One Day, A Thousand Years: a time-travel trip to Hengdian', a traveller's note
I thought the shows on TV were real until I grew up and realised I had only been watching drama, upgraded. The heroes I watched die are still alive. It is all fake — and it does not matter in the least. At Hengdian I finally got the feeling of walking inside a painting, inside a story.
'Let's go to Hengdian and travel through time', a traveller's note
Hengdian is a town that exists because of film. In 1996 the Hengdian Group built its first street — a 19th-century Guangzhou for Xie Jin's 'The Opium War' — and then it did not stop: a Qin palace, a 1:1 Forbidden City, a Song scroll town, a 19th-century Hong Kong, a night-time theme park. There are now more than a dozen sets across some 10 sq km, which is why the American trade press calls it China's Hollywood and why it earns a 5A tourism rating.
The honest thing to say up front is that almost none of it is old. The Qin Palace was built in the late 1990s; the Ming-Qing Palace is a replica; the water towns and courts are film sets. That does not matter as much as you would think, because the sets are built at full scale and to a real historical brief, and because the industry around them is genuine — crews shooting in the open, prop carts, costumed actors queueing for lunch. You are watching a factory that happens to be beautiful.
The live shows are the other half of the ticket and the part most visitors underestimate. Each set runs period performances through the day — a horse battle and a palace intrigue at the Ming-Qing Palace, a Song court music drama on the Qingming scroll, naval fights on the Guangzhou river — and after dark Dream Valley puts on 'Fantasy Tai Chi', one of the ten most influential tourism performances in China, staged around the largest live volcano set in the world.
And it is convenient. Yiwu is 36 km away and has the nearest airport, Hangzhou is 160 km north with shuttle coaches, Shanghai is about 3.5 hours by road, and inside the park a ¥1 bus loops every fifteen minutes between the sets. Two days is enough to see the main ones without sprinting; three, with the culture park and the cable car at the Pingyan Caves, is a holiday.
Hengdian
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
Twenty-seven palace halls, a defensive wall 2,289 m long and 18 m high, and a main hall 120 m deep — built for 'The Emperor and the Assassin', which won Cannes' technical grand prize in 1999, and used since for 'Hero', 'The Myth' and 'The Mummy 3'. It is the set that proves a backlot can be more than a facade.
The Ming-Qing Palace copies the real palace at full scale, mingling Ming, Qing and a little Republican architecture across four building families. It is where the palace dramas shoot, and where you can see the horse battle and the intrigue play without a hundred-thousand-person queue.
The Guangzhou and Hong Kong set was Hengdian's first, built in August 1996 for Xie Jin's 'The Opium War', with the Pearl river running through the Guangzhou half and Queen's Road, the Governor's House and St John's Cathedral in the Hong Kong half. Hundreds of films later, it is still the most atmospheric corner of the park.
The performances are why Hengdian justifies two days: horse battles, palace intrigues, Song court dramas, naval clashes and the Huaxia culture show 'Longing for China'. They run to a timetable printed on each set's leaflet — grab one at the gate, or you will miss the shows and see only the walls.
This is not a museum: 7,500-odd registered extras live in town, crews shoot in the open, and prop carts rattle past restaurants. The busiest places to brush past the business are the sets, the street kitchens, hotel lifts, the KTVs at night and the late coffee shops — and the studio says it welcomes eight million visitors a year.
From 16:00 the day sets hand over to a night-time film-experience park: a volcano that erupts, a flash flood, a haunted pirate house, an earthquake simulator and the five-chapter spectacular 'Fantasy Tai Chi' around the world's largest live volcano set. One of China's ten most influential tourism performances.
Suggested routes
The single-day version, for a stop en route between Yiwu and the coast. A combo ticket and a brisk pace.
Start at the Ming-Qing Palace and, if it appeals, rent a period costume for the palace gardens — the whole point of the day is to walk through history rather than read about it.
Move to the Guangzhou and Hong Kong streets for the cross-cultural quarter, then after lunch take the Qin Palace and its shows 'Hero Fencing' and 'Dreaming Back to Qin and Han'. On to the Qingming scroll for 'A Dream of Bianliang' and 'Laughing Through the Gate of Heaven'.
Finish after dark at Dream Valley — the rides plus 'Flash Flood and Mountain Torrent' and 'Fantasy Tai Chi'.
Stops: Ming-Qing PalaceGuangzhou-Hong Kong StreetsQin PalaceQingming ScrollDream Valley
The standard layout: big historical sets first, then the streets and the night park.
Begin at the Qin Palace — the big one, and the source of 'Hero', 'The Promise' and 'Schemes of a Beauty'. Then walk the Qingming scroll, and if you are lucky a crew will be shooting and you can watch from the sidelines.
After lunch go to the Ming-Qing Dwellings museum city, where you can step into the Peach Blossom Spring or take a night-tour of the Qinhuai river; 'The Warlords' and 'Detective Dee' were shot here.
If you have the evening in you, end at Dream Valley — the international star street and the shows.
Stops: Qin PalaceQingming ScrollMing-Qing DwellingsDream Valley
First stop the Huaxia Culture Park, the heart of the Huaxia culture city and a one-of-a-kind theme park of Chinese civilisation — ten zones from the gate square to the four Buddhist mountains, the three-religion pagoda and the folk streets.
Afternoon on the Guangzhou and Hong Kong streets, where you can walk the Victoria waterfront past the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and the Tavistock Gate from 'Naval Clash' without a passport. Then the Ming-Qing Palace for the horse battle and the intrigue play at their fixed times.
If the replica architecture has tired you out, finish at the Pingyan Caves: ride the cable car over the forest and look down on the whole Hengdian park.
Stops: Huaxia Culture ParkGuangzhou-Hong Kong StreetsMing-Qing PalacePingyan Caves
A looser version built around costumes, the star street and Dream Valley, with the culture park and caves as the slow half.
Costumes and palaces in the morning at the Ming-Qing Palace, then the two 19th-century streets in the afternoon — the most photogenic set in the park and the place to have your picture taken in regalia.
Stops: Ming-Qing PalaceGuangzhou-Hong Kong StreetsDream Valley
The Qin Palace and its shows first, the Qingming scroll second, the Huaxia Culture Park for the odd, unexpected Chinese-civilisation set, and the Pingyan Caves cable car at the end of the day to decompress.
Stops: Qin PalaceQingming ScrollHuaxia Culture ParkPingyan Caves
Sights
The epic
A very large set holding 27 palace halls, with a 2,289 m wall standing 18 m high and a 120 m 'Qin-Han street' showing the market life of the period. The main hall, Sihai Guiyi, runs through front, middle and rear sections and is more than 120 m deep; its bracket-arms are built to an unusual span so the ceiling soars. To the west, the Huayang Terrace is a Yan palace in a totally different style — two royal courts in one base, two thousand years compressed into a walk. Built for 'The Emperor and the Assassin' (1999 Cannes technical grand prize) and used for 'Hero', 'The Emperor's Shadow', 'The Myth', 'Painted Skin' and 'The Mummy 3'.
Tip See it in the morning if you can — the halls face east and the light is best before noon.
The replica palace
The largest base in the park and a 1:1 copy of the Forbidden City, built to the court's architectural methods and adding something of Tang, Song and Yuan ritual and a Republican streak on top. Four building families come together — capital palaces, imperial gardens, princely courts and hutongs — reconstructing the official halls, streets and shops of an old imperial city. More than a hundred major productions have shot here, from 'The Banquet' to 'Curse of the Golden Flower', and the palace dramas keep coming: 'Palace', 'Empresses in the Palace', 'Scarlet Heart', 'The Palace Lock'.
Tip Rent a costume before you go in — it is the difference between looking at a palace and being photographed in one.
Where it began
The founding set of Hengdian, built in August 1996 for Xie Jin's 'The Opium War'. The Guangzhou half is grid streets with the Pearl river through the middle, recreating a 19th-century trading city; the Hong Kong half is laid across a hillside and holds Queen's Road, Queen's Statue Square, the Governor's House and St John's Cathedral. It has hosted hundreds of productions, among them 'The Opium War', 'Lurk', 'Coming Home' and 'Yongzheng Dynasty'. The shows 'The Opium War' and 'Naval Clash' run here.
Tip The 'Victoria coast' end is where the crews and newlyweds shoot most often — the most reliably photogenic corner in the park.
The painted city
A full set built from Zhang Zeduan's Northern Song painting: 120-odd buildings, six bridges, nine wharves, six boats and fourteen memorial arches, split into an outer city, an inner city and a palace city, with the Bian river winding through so that there is a city beyond the city and a river within the river. Shops stand shoulder to shoulder, the water is clear, and the whole thing reads as Song-dynasty capital luxury and marketplace noise at once. It stages 'A Dream of Bianliang' and 'Laughing Through the Gate of Heaven'.
Tip Climb the gate tower for the panorama — near, the whole base; far, the whole of Hengdian town.
The night park
A 4-hour evening park spread over three zones — Hengdian old street, Jiangnan water town and the Dream Culture Village — built around natural spectacles and a lot of rides. There is a banyan forest, a Yardang landscape, the erupting volcano, a gaming arcade, the pirate ghost house, an earthquake science hall, a food street, a time-and-space waterfall, and the panoramic musical 'Fantasy Tai Chi'. The night is the point: this is where Hengdian turns from a museum into a theme park.
Tip The volcano show and the musical are back to back in the evening — check the times at the gate and build the rest of the night around them.
The other two
The Huaxia Culture Park is the heart of the Huaxia culture city and a one-of-a-kind theme park of Chinese civilisation, blending history, art and entertainment across ten zones: the gate, the culture square, the historical corridor, the four Buddhist mountains, the three-religion pagoda, a fish-and-joy garden, a pagoda forest, a botanical garden, a folk street and a fairy terrace. The Ming-Qing Dwellings museum city is a working conservation, filming and exhibition site split into a Peach Blossom Spring and a Qinhuai river, dense with brick carving, timber carving and folk opera — where 'The Warlords' and 'Detective Dee' were shot.
Tip These two are the slow half of a Hengdian trip and the calmest places to be when the palace sets are full.
Live shows
The big one
The most famous single show in Hengdian and the reason to stay late: a five-chapter stage spectacular set around an erupting volcano, taking the deep symbols of the I Ching and making them concrete — bold imagery, lavish staging, and clear of any need to know the source text. It is rated one of the ten most influential tourism performances in China, and it is staged on the world's largest live volcano set.
Tip Arrive early for a good seat; the volcano scene is the one everyone stands up for.
Horse and intrigue
'Eight Banners Horse Battle' at 09:00 and 14:00 is a full cavalry display in the palace grounds; 'The Secret Palace Play' at 10:00 and 15:00 is the plotting-and-poisoning counterpart. Together they are the most reliably scheduled performances in the park, which makes the palace the easiest set to plan a day around.
Tip Get to the horse battle twenty minutes early — it draws the biggest daytime crowd.
Court and comedy
'A Dream of Bianliang' plays the dreamlike Song capital for all it is worth, and 'Laughing Through the Gate of Heaven' is the comic set-piece — a Yang family saga staged as broad entertainment. Both are short, colourful and easy to watch even with no Chinese, which makes this the friendliest set on the park for non-Chinese-speaking visitors.
Tip The Dasongfang area inside the set is where to eat and buy craft between shows.
Ships and gunpowder
The Guangzhou-Hong Kong set stages 'The Opium War' and 'Naval Clash' using the river and the wharves as they were built to be used — the naval show is the one that fills the set's waterfront, with the Tavistock Gate, the old HSBC building and the Victoria harbour as the backdrop. This is also the set most likely to have an actual crew working while you watch the performance.
Tip Watch the naval show from the Victoria side, then walk back through the Guangzhou half at dusk when the lanterns come on.
Food
The ceremonial banquet dish of Dongyang: a round steamed bun, flat-bottomed and domed, stamped with red 'joy' or 'longevity' characters for happy occasions, served one per person; the weng rou is cooked pork cut into triangular blocks of 150–250 g, the bigger the more impressive, braised until tender. Two blocks a person is the going rate.
A country dish, and mostly a New Year food: pork intestine cleaned and stuffed with glutinous rice and water, simmered slowly and eaten as is. Sliced and grilled or deep-fried it smells and tastes even better, and it is the sort of thing you find only in a family kitchen.
Acorns ground to a fine powder, soaked, settled and filtered several times to take out the astringency, then stirred into boiling water to a paste and set into a soft, coffee-coloured jelly. Cut into diamonds, dressed with sugar, rice vinegar and cold water — cooling, and by local belief a defence against summer damp.
Tofu cut into playing-card squares and pressed against an oiled wok wall until both sides brown. Farm kitchens stew it with greens and beansprouts, or with pickles and pork in a clay pot until it swells; eaten hot off the pan with soy and rice vinegar it is best of all.
The famous ham of the region — yellow-gold skin, a pipa shape, red-rose flesh, heavy aroma and a long shelf life; internationally known and traditionally credited with tonic properties. The single most carryable food souvenir from the region.
A pastry that wins on flakiness: crab-shell shaped, golden on both sides, layered like paper, savoury-sweet and crisp. The local snack that lingers longest on the palate afterwards.
The street that feeds the crews covers every Chinese region in a few hundred metres — Chongqing 'Qiqi' hotpot, a proper Beijing lamb hotpot, northwest big-plate chicken, Jinhua clay-pot casseroles (bone, beef offal and sour-fish), Dongyang hand-pulled noodles, and Jinhua flaky pastries. If you cannot decide what you want, you want this street.
Just a noodle shop, but a famous one — stars and locals both make the trip. The noodles are the draw, and the pineapple buns and egg tarts on the side are better than they have any right to be. On Wansheng food street.
Where to eat
The centre of gravity
The single food street of the film town, and the fastest way to eat in Hengdian: one strip covering most of China's regional cooking, from Chongqing hotpot and Beijing lamb to northwest chicken and Jinhua casseroles. Star-spotting is a free side dish — crews, extras and actors all eat along here.
The star wall
A long-established cha chaan teng in Hengdian town run by a Hong Kong owner, serving properly Cantonese food — good value, warm service, and a wall of photographs of the owner with the stars who have eaten here. The walls are the menu for celebrity-watchers.
Worth the queue
Nothing more than a noodle shop, but one with a reputation that brings both stars and locals out of their way. Noodles first, then the snacks — pineapple buns, egg tarts and the like, all better than the setting suggests.
Eat inside the park
Nearly every set has a themed commercial area, so you can eat where you are: the Dasongfang commercial quarter inside the Qingming scroll, the underground imperial city at the Qin Palace, the foreign-goods street at the Guangzhou-Hong Kong set, and the Buddhist-artefact outlet at Dazhi Temple. Convenient rather than cheap, but it saves a coach ride in the middle of a schedule.
Where to stay
Central
On Wansheng North Street in the middle of the town's commercial heart, close to supermarkets and banks, and within walking distance of both the Ming-Qing Palace and the Guangzhou-Hong Kong streets, with a shuttle between hotel and park. Convenient, mid-range, the safe default.
Old central
Attached to the Wansheng Street bridge and the riverside park, in the centre of the cluster of tourist sites, so moving between them is easy. The ground-floor west restaurant does regional street snacks; floors two and three are private rooms and a banquet hall.
Four-star
A four-star hotel covering lodging, dining, conferences, business and leisure, with singles through to presidential suites, two Chinese banquet halls, a western restaurant, and a menu that leans on Hangzhou and Jinhua cooking with seasonal and creative dishes each quarter. The comfortable choice.
Inside the park
Set right by the Qingming scroll base, with the Qin Palace, the Jiangnan water town and Dazhi Temple all close by. Because it is so near the sets, a lot of production crews stay here to save travel time — the joke being that the star might be in the next room. The best base if your priority is early access before the gates open.
Backpacker pick
Inside the Ming-Qing Dwellings museum city (the non-ticketed part), five minutes' walk from Dream Valley. A two-storey pseudo-antique building, Lijiang guesthouse in style and the only one of its kind in Hengdian. Off the street, so it is very quiet and quite hard to find — the hunt is part of the charm. The owner's lobby is full of genuine antiques, and several productions have shot here.
Shopping
The region's famous ham and the easiest gift to carry: yellow-gold skin, pipa shape, red-rose flesh, rich aroma. Buy a whole leg at a proper shop rather than a stall, and ask about vacuum-packing before you fly.
The other Jinhua souvenir that travels well: crab-shell shaped, golden, layered like paper, savoury-sweet, and light enough to carry a box home. Buy it fresh and eat most of it before the flight.
One of China's four great schools of wood carving, and the reason the town is called a hometown of arts and crafts. The techniques run to more than ten — relief, round carving, pierced double-sided carving, inlaid coloured-wood carving — with a particular strength in high relief over many layers. If you collect craft, this is the thing.
The other Dongyang craft, and a lighter, cheaper way to take the town's artistry home: fine woven baskets, containers and decorative pieces that show off the same precision as the wood carving.
Hengdian's own mountain green-produce brand and now the park's strongest local speciality: black-rice cake, buckwheat cake, kudzu powder, candied dates, figs, almonds, high-mountain corn, wild bamboo-shoot goods, lily bulb, tea and an array of mushrooms. Practical, packable, not a bad gift for someone who cooks.
The local rice wine makes a good take-home too. Buy inside the sets — the Dasongfang quarter on the Qingming scroll, the underground imperial city at the Qin Palace, the foreign-goods street at the Guangzhou-Hong Kong set, and the temple outlet at Dazhi Temple, where amulets are blessed during Buddhist events. The town shops near the hotels carry the ham and pastries at better prices than the park.
Getting there
Yiwu Airport (YIW) is the nearest, 36 km away and connected to most Chinese cities; from the airport go to the Yiwu Jiangdong coach station and take the shuttle to Hengdian, every 30 minutes, about 30 minutes. Hangzhou Xiaoshan (HGH) also runs coaches to Hengdian at 10:30, 13:10 and 16:30, returning at 06:10, 09:00 and 13:10 (0579-86690371).
There is no station at Hengdian; you come in via Yiwu. Alight at Yiwu station, take bus K805 to the Jiangdong coach station, then the shuttle to Hengdian — about an hour in all. The shuttle passes the Xinghe Hotel and terminates near the International Trade Building and the Yingxing Hotel, both convenient for the sets.
Hangzhou South station runs direct to the Hengdian resort for ¥64 (out 06:50, 08:00, 09:50, 10:50, 13:30, 14:10, 16:50, 17:50; back 06:10, 07:20, 10:00, 10:50, 13:10, 14:10, 16:30, 17:10). The Hangzhou tourist centre at Huanglong sports centre runs a return service for ¥60. Shanghai South station runs direct to Hengdian, or to Dongyang West, from where a shuttle leaves every ten minutes (about 20 minutes, ¥6). A taxi from Shanghai South to Hengdian is about ¥25 a head.
A tourist loop bus links every set — every 15 minutes, ¥1 a ride — running from the visitor centre at Houling Mountain through Guangzhou Street, the Ming-Qing Palace, the hotels, the old dwellings, the resort, Dream Valley, the Qin Palace, the Bianjing Hotel, the Qingming scroll and the Huaxia Culture Park. Taxis between sets are about ¥10; pedicabs ¥3–5; the little three-wheeled motor carts flag at ¥5 and never exceed ¥10 a run.
Practical
Small print that saves money: buying online beats the gate, and the combo beats buying set by set — but only if you actually use every set on it.
| Set hours | Most sets run 08:00–16:30; Dream Valley is 16:00–21:00. Plan the day around the 16:30 shutdown and hand over to the night park. |
|---|---|
| Combo tickets | Two sets plus Dream Valley ¥350; five sets ¥390; five sets plus Dream Valley ¥650. Buy online for a discount. |
| Concessions | Under 1.2 m free; 1.2–1.5 m, serving soldiers, officers and disabled visitors half price; seniors (men 60, women 55) 30% off; teachers 20% off. |
| Show timetables | Every set prints its performance times on the leaflet and map at the entrance — pick one up first, or you will miss the shows. |
| Booking in season | There are plenty of rooms, but weekends and holidays fill up; book ahead, and look for the low-season 'ticket with a room thrown in' offers. |
| Hospital | Hengdian Group Hospital, 1 Yixue Road, Hengdian, 0579-86552120. |
| Tourist line | 0579-86547211; official site hengdianworld.com. |
Background
Hengdian sits in Dongyang, in central Zhejiang, 36 km from the small-goods capital Yiwu, 90 km from Jinhua and 160 km from the provincial capital Hangzhou — inside the four-hour driving circle that takes in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian and Jiangxi. The climate is subtropical monsoon: mild, wet, four clear seasons, an annual average of about 17°C, 2,002 hours of sunshine and 1,351 mm of rain.
Since 1996 the Hengdian Group has invested well over three billion yuan in the backlot, building the Guangzhou and Hong Kong streets first, then the Qin Palace, the Ming-Qing Palace, the Qingming scroll, Dream Valley, the Huaxia Culture Park, the Pingyan Caves, Dazhi Temple, the Ming-Qing Dwellings and more — fourteen bases spanning thousands of years of history and, on the studio's count, two supersized modern sound stages. It is now the largest film base in Asia and a 5A-rated attraction welcoming about eight million visitors a year.
What turned a set into an industry was the service economy around it: prop-making, equipment and vehicle hire, costume and make-up, and above all a large body of extras. The Hengdian actors' guild registers more than 7,500 special and background performers — the 'Hengpiao', or Hengdian drifters, who come from all over China to work here. Meanwhile the list of directors and stars who have shot in town runs from Xie Jin, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou to Gong Li, Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun-fat.
The studios dragged the leisure industry up behind them. Within ten sq km there are now more than ten star-rated hotels and over 8,000 beds, plus amusement parks, nightclubs, sauna centres, a performance hall, a gym and a bowling alley, and a town centre full of bookshops, internet cafes, bars and teahouses cooking every regional style of Chinese food. The studio likes to call it a 'capital of Chinese country leisure' — and for a place built out of plywood and paint, it has made the title stick.
Travel with them
Zhang Yimou, 2006
The Zhang Yimou palace epic — a king (Chow Yun-fat) who seizes the throne, a queen (Gong Li) with a secret, and a family that comes apart over one festival night — shot largely on the sets you are about to walk through. Watch it and the Ming-Qing Palace becomes a film you have already been inside.
Rob Cohen, 2008
The Hollywood instalment shot at the Qin Palace: Rick and Evelyn O'Connell are pulled back for one last job, an artefact from a Shanghai museum has to go home, and an ancient emperor wakes up. Loud, silly and a useful reminder that these sets stand in for anywhere in China.
Zeng Yulin
A travel companion rather than a history: collected impressions from journalists and visitors, with star encounters, shooting anecdotes and set-by-set introductions, put together as a practical handbook for the park and a good primer on what to look for on each street.
shot at the Ming-Qing Palace
The Qing palace drama that helped define the modern genre, filmed on the replica palace — along with 'Palace', 'Scarlet Heart', 'The Palace Lock' and countless others. A few episodes will make the costumes, the courtyards and the intrigue shows land far harder when you see them in person.
The questions visitors ask us most about Hengdian, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Two days is the honest answer. Day one takes the historical sets — the Qin Palace, the Qingming scroll and the Ming-Qing Palace — and day two does the Guangzhou-Hong Kong streets and the Ming-Qing Dwellings in the morning, then Dream Valley from 16:00. One day only works with a combo ticket and a fast pace, and you will see buildings rather than performances.
If you want the night park, the five-set combo plus Dream Valley at ¥650 is the best value, covering the Qin Palace, Qingming scroll, Guangzhou-Hong Kong streets, Ming-Qing Palace, the Huaxia Culture Park and the Ming-Qing Dwellings. Two sets plus Dream Valley is ¥350 and five sets alone is ¥390. Buy online for a further discount, and check the concession list before you do.
Each set runs several a day, so pick up the leaflet and map at the entrance — it lists the times. The fixed ones to plan around are the 'Eight Banners Horse Battle' at the Ming-Qing Palace (09:00 and 14:00) and 'The Secret Palace Play' (10:00 and 15:00); the Qingming scroll runs 'A Dream of Bianliang' and 'Laughing Through the Gate of Heaven'; the Guangzhou streets do 'The Opium War' and 'Naval Clash'. Dream Valley's shows are evening-only.
Yes, as part of a combo. It is a night park with a volcano eruption, a flash flood, a haunted house and an earthquake simulator, but the reason to stay is 'Fantasy Tai Chi' — five movements that turn the I Ching into a stage spectacular around the world's largest live volcano. Buy it within a combo and it is a fraction of the ¥195 stand-alone gate.
Often, yes. Hengdian shoots all year — some 600 films and 3,000-plus TV episodes so far — and crews work in the open in many of the sets, so you can watch from a respectful distance. Do not walk into a frame, do not interrupt, and do not approach actors mid-take; the extras and staff are the ones most likely to stop and chat.
Fly to Yiwu (YIW), then a shuttle from the Jiangdong coach station every 30 minutes (about 30 minutes). Or fly to Hangzhou Xiaoshan and take a shuttle at 10:30, 13:10 or 16:30. By train, alight at Yiwu and change to bus K805 and then a shuttle. By coach, direct services run from Hangzhou South (¥64) and the Huanglong centre (¥60), and from Shanghai South via Dongyang West.
Wansheng food street is the reliable answer — it spans every Chinese regional style and is where the production crews eat, from Chongqing hotpot to Beijing lamb hotpot to Jinhua sour-fish casserole. For Dongyang cooking proper, order the ceremonial steamed pork with buns, glutinous-rice sausage, acorn tofu and grilled tofu. The Hong Kong cha chaan teng on Baxian Street is the star-spotting staple.
Yes — it is one of the better family destinations in Zhejiang. Under-1.2 m children go free, the costumed shows are short and visual enough for young kids, Dream Valley is a genuine theme park after dark, and the sets are open and walkable rather than cramped. The main caution is the summer heat; spring or autumn is far easier on small children.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
City guides
Dalian
City guide · 15 tours
The Northern Pearl — China's most romantic coastal city.
Shenyang
City guide · 12 tours
Where the Qing dynasty began — an imperial palace, a warlord's mansion and the cheapest good food in the northeast.
Changbai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano on the North Korean border, a jade-green crater lake at 2,189 m, and hot springs on the way down.
Kunming
City guide · 12 tours
China's Spring City — a mild plateau capital of flowers, markets and the Stone Forest, with gulls on the lake in winter.
Dali
City guide · 12 tours
A walled Bai town between a 4,000 m mountain and a great lake — wind, flowers, snow and moon, and life at a slower speed.
Shuhe
City guide · 12 tours
The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.
Lijiang
City guide · 12 tours
A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.
Xiamen
City guide · 12 tours
A subtropical island city of temples, fishing-village lanes and the best street food in Fujian — with the car-free islet of Gulangyu a 20-minute ferry away.
Gulangyu
City guide · 12 tours
A car-free island of colonial villas, pianos and cats, twenty minutes off Xiamen — and the one place where the trick is simply to stay the night.
Fuzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,200-year-old capital of banyan trees and mountains-within-the-city, where the Ming lanes of Sanfang Qixiang meet the dockyard that built China's modern navy.
Lugu Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,680 m lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to China's last matrilineal people, pig-trough canoes and a great deal of doing nothing.
Xishuangbanna
City guide · 12 tours
China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.
Shangri-La
City guide · 12 tours
A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.
Nanchang
City guide · 12 tours
Jiangxi's 'hero city' on the Gan River — one great Tang pavilion, a 160-metre Ferris wheel, and the best claypot soup you will eat in China.
Hefei
City guide · 12 tours
Anhui's 2,000-year-old capital: the hometown of China's model judge, a moat-turned-garden ring, and the fast rail gateway to Huangshan.
Hongcun
City guide · 12 tours
A 900-year-old Hui village laid out as an ox, with water running to every door and a mirror-still crescent pond at its heart.
Wuhan
City guide · 12 tours
Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.
Changsha
City guide · 12 tours
Hunan's loud, young capital: a 3,000-year-old city that eats chilli-hot food, stays up all night and treats foot massage as a civic duty.
Fenghuang Ancient Town
City guide · 12 tours
The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.
Lushan
City guide · 12 tours
A cloud-wrapped granite mountain with a Victorian hill station on top, waterfalls in three tiers, and the mist that Su Shi said you could never see through.
Wuyuan
City guide · 12 tours
China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.
Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan)
City guide · 12 tours
The South Great Peak: a pilgrimage mountain of 72 summits where the temples run all the way to the top, and the sunrise over the cloud sea is the whole point.
Huangshan
City guide · 12 tours
Yellow Mountain: 82 granite peaks of twisted pines and grotesque rock, a sea of cloud that changes by the hour, and hot springs at the foot.
Wudang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The Taoist first mountain of China — a gilded bronze hall on a 1,612 m summit, temples hung off cliff faces, and the birthplace of tai chi.
Luoyang
City guide · 12 tours
Thirteen dynasties, 100,000 Buddhas carved into a river cliff, China's first Buddhist temple — and a whole city that turns peony-pink every April.
Yuntai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A UNESCO geopark in Henan where red-stone gorges squeeze a river to a slot, a 314 m waterfall drops in one plunge, and every path leads to another pool.
Rizhao
City guide · 12 tours
A low-key Shandong beach town where the sun rises straight out of the Yellow Sea, the sand runs 60 km and a seafood dinner costs less than a coffee in Shanghai.
Yantai
City guide · 12 tours
A northern Shandong port of fairy-tale cliffs, wine cellars and long golden beaches — where emperors once hunted the elixir of life and China's wine industry still begins.
Lianyungang
City guide · 12 tours
A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.
Sanqing Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical forest of granite pillars in Jiangxi — the Python Out of the Mountain, the Goddess of the East Sea, two cable cars and a cliff-hugging walkway at 1,660 metres.
Tianjin
City guide · 12 tours
Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.
Datong
City guide · 12 tours
A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.
Taiyuan
City guide · 12 tours
Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.
Pingyao
City guide · 12 tours
China's best-preserved ancient walled town — a Ming wall, the first Chinese bank, and two temples of painted clay just outside the gates.
Wutai Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.
Hulunbuir
City guide · 12 tours
China's finest grassland — a 263,000 km² sweep of steppe, birch forest and border river, best driven with the windows down.
The Forbidden City
City guide · 12 tours
Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.
Sanya
City guide · 12 tours
China's only true winter-sun coast — four very different bays, a coral island and a 108 m sea Buddha, all at 18° north.
Haikou
City guide · 12 tours
Hainan's capital is the island's living city — 600-year-old arcade streets, a volcanic village, and a morning-tea-to-midnight food culture.
Beihai
City guide · 12 tours
24 km of fine white sand on one side, a volcanic island of coral and lava on the other — plus a 19th-century arcade old street in between.
Nanning
City guide · 12 tours
Guangxi's green capital is a gateway to Detian Falls, Beihai and Vietnam — and a genuinely excellent food city if you let it slow you down.
Guangxi
City guide · 12 tours
One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.
Huizhou
City guide · 12 tours
A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.
Beidaihe
City guide · 12 tours
Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.
Shanhaiguan
City guide · 12 tours
The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.
Baiyangdian
City guide · 12 tours
The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.
Qinhuangdao
City guide · 12 tours
126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.
Yesanpo
City guide · 12 tours
Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.
Zhuhai
City guide · 12 tours
The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
Jiuzhaigou
City guide · 12 tours
108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.
Mount Siguniang
City guide · 12 tours
Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
City guide · 12 tours
A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.
Daocheng Yading
City guide · 12 tours
Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.
Shunan Bamboo Sea
City guide · 12 tours
Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.
Dujiangyan
City guide · 12 tours
Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.
Qingcheng Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.
Qingdao
City guide · 12 tours
Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.
Mount Tai
City guide · 12 tours
1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.
Jinan
City guide · 12 tours
A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.
Weihai
City guide · 12 tours
1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.
Qufu
City guide · 12 tours
One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.
Penglai
City guide · 12 tours
China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.
Changdao
City guide · 12 tours
32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.
Nanjing
City guide · 12 tours
Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.
Suzhou
City guide · 12 tours
Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.
Zhouzhuang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.
Tongli
City guide · 12 tours
Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.
Wuxi
City guide · 12 tours
Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.
Yangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.
Zhenjiang
City guide · 12 tours
Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.
Changzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.
Wuzhen
City guide · 12 tours
A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.
Xitang
City guide · 12 tours
Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.
Hangzhou
City guide · 12 tours
A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.
Xixi Wetland
City guide · 12 tours
Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.
Ningbo
City guide · 12 tours
A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.
Mount Putuo
City guide · 12 tours
A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.
Qiandao Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.
Shaoxing
City guide · 12 tours
Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.
Zhoushan
City guide · 12 tours
1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.
Yandang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.
Zhejiang
City guide · 12 tours
One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.
Hong Kong Outlying Islands
City guide · 12 tours
Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.
Hong Kong Shopping
City guide · 12 tours
A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.
Macao
City guide · 12 tours
Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.
Urumqi
City guide · 12 tours
The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.
Hong Kong SAR, China
City guide · 11 tours
A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.
Taiwan, China
City guide · 11 tours
Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.
Qinghai Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.
Mount Emei
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.
Beijing
City guide · 11 tours
Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.
Taipei
City guide · 11 tours
A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.
North Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.
Lanzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.
Mount Hua
City guide · 11 tours
Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.
Dunhuang
City guide · 11 tours
A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.
Gannan
City guide · 11 tours
433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.
Sichuan–Tibet Highway
City guide · 11 tours
2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.
Kangding
City guide · 11 tours
The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.
Lhasa
City guide · 12 tours
A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.
Nyingchi
City guide · 11 tours
Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.
Namtso
City guide · 11 tours
A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.
Chongqing
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.
Qiandongnan
City guide · 11 tours
A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.
Libo
City guide · 11 tours
Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.
Guiyang
City guide · 11 tours
China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.
Zhenyuan
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.
Huangguoshu
City guide · 11 tours
Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.
Harbin
City guide · 11 tours
Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.
Yunnan
City guide · 11 tours
Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.
Shanghai
City guide · 11 tours
A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.
Zhangjiajie
City guide · 11 tours
Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.
Guangzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.
Guilin
City guide · 11 tours
Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.
Shenzhen
City guide · 11 tours
A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.
Chengdu
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.
Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.
Xi'an
City guide · 14 tours
Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.
Qinghai
City guide · 11 tours
China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.
Tibet
City guide · 11 tours
A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.
Related reading
Visas
Do I Need a Visa for China? Requirements, Costs and How to Apply
China's entry rules changed more in the last three years than in the previous twenty. Here is exactly who needs a visa, what it costs, how long it takes and which passports now walk straight through.
9 min read
Visas
China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit: Who Qualifies and How It Works
Ten days in China with no visa application, no fee and no fingerprints — if you hold the right passport and leave for a third country. Here is the rulebook, port by port.
8 min read
Money
Paying in China: Alipay, WeChat Pay, Cards and Cash
Roughly nine in ten urban payments in China now run through a phone. Set up two apps before you fly, carry a modest cash float, and you will never be stuck at a till.
8 min read
Transport
China's High-Speed Rail: How to Book, What It Costs, How Fast It Goes
The fastest way to cross China is also the most pleasant. Here is how to book a ticket with a foreign passport, what the three classes actually give you, and how to survive a Chinese station at rush hour.
9 min read
Planning
Best Time to Visit China: Month by Month, Region by Region
China is the size of Europe, so 'the best month' depends on where you stand. Here is the month-by-month answer for the north, the Yangtze valley, the south and the plateau.
8 min read
Planning
What to Pack for China: The Complete 2026 Checklist
Twenty thousand steps a day, three climate zones and a phone that has to do everything. This is the list we give our own travellers, minus the things they never used.
7 min read
Food
Chinese Food Culture: Eight Cuisines, One Table
There is no such thing as Chinese food. There is Cantonese, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Shandong — and knowing which one you are eating changes everything.
8 min read
Traditions
Chinese Tea Culture: Six Classes, One Pot, Two Fingers
Tea in China is not a beverage category, it is a social technology: it fills silences, seals deals and sets the pace of a meal. Here is how to sit down in one and not look lost.
7 min read
Traditions
Chinese Festivals: The Calendar, the Dates and the Crowds
Lunar dates mean the calendar moves every year — and two of the festivals move several hundred million people at once. Plan around them or plan into them, but never by accident.
8 min read
Etiquette
Chinese Etiquette: What Matters, What Does Not, and Why
Most etiquette advice for China is either obvious or wrong. These are the dozen behaviours that actually change how you are treated, and the reasoning behind each.
7 min read
Free itinerary design, a revised plan within one working day, and nothing charged until you approve the final version.
