Hengdian World Studios (
Chinese: 横店影视城) is a
film studio located in
Hengdian, a
Chinese town in the city of
Dongyang,
Jinhua,
Zhejiang Province. It is the largest film studio in the world. The movie studio is operated by the privately owned Hengdian Group founded by Xu Wenrong. Sometimes called "Chinawood", Xu turned acres of farmland in central Zhejiang into one of the largest movie studios in
Asia. Construction began in the mid-1990s and has been ongoing ever since with the possible recent addition of the replica of the
Old Summer Palace. A film about
extras working at the studio,
I Am Somebody, was released in China in 2015.
The studio consists of 13 shooting bases with a total area of up to 330 ha. and building areas of 495,995 square meters. In addition to its huge scale, the studio also has several records which includes:
- Largest Indoor Buddha Figure in China.
- Largest Scale Indoor Studio.
- Most number of Films and Teleplay Shoots as of 2005.
One of the studio's largest buildings is the Imperial Palace Building built in the Early Chinese Dynasty style in the
Qin and
Han periods. That area is still frequently used to shoot movies based on these eras. The director
Zhang Yimou used this building as the backdrop for the Emperor Qin's palace for his 2002 movie
Hero. A
Hong Kong TVB drama serial titled
A Step into the Past which tells the story of the First Qin Emperor also used the same building as the main backdrop. The studio was also used to film
The Forbidden Kingdom, the first on-screen collaboration between actors
Jackie Chan and
Jet Li.In addition, it was also used for the filming of the popular
Korean drama serial
Empress Ki.
The large number of movies being filmed at Hengdian has supported employment in surrounding villages by employing local villagers as 'extras' in these large movie sets.
Today, Hengdian World Studios consists of a theme park and has attractions such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong Street areas, Emperor Qin Palace, Dazhi Temple and Palace of the
Ming and
Qing Dynasties.