Hengdian visitors star in own palace dramas

Hengdian visitors are stepping in front of the camera at a studio complex in eastern China, filming palace scenes on sets normally reserved for professional period dramas. The paying guests dress in costume, work with a director, and leave with an edited video of the performance, turning a working film lot into a place where tourists play the lead roles.

Outside an ornate palace chamber, onlookers peered through the doors at four women in silk robes and jade hairpins acting out a scene of court intrigue, according to a report by Chenxi Yang and Nicoco Chan for Reuters, published on 2 November. During the scene, a consort slapped a rival across the face, the director called for another take, and the cast gathered around their phones before breaking into laughter. The moment looked like a professional shoot, yet the performers were friends on a trip, not actors on a production payroll.

The scene was not for a television drama. The women were friends who had travelled more than 1,500 km to star in their own production at Hengdian World Studios, the sprawling complex in eastern China known as China's Hollywood, where many of the country's period dramas are filmed. Their journey shows how far some guests will travel for a short turn on a famous set, and how the studio has begun selling that experience directly to the public.

The studio has expanded into experiential tourism, allowing guests to shoot their own scenes on sets ranging from a replica of Beijing's Forbidden City to old Shanghai streets used in professional productions. The appeal lies in the setting itself: the rooms, costumes, and backdrops are the same kind of material that audiences see on screen, rather than a separate attraction built to imitate a film set. Guests step into a space that already carries the look of a palace drama, then perform a short script under direction.

Since the experience launched in August, Hengdian said more than 2,000 people had taken part, with bookings full on most days, particularly during weekends and holidays. The pace suggests the offer found an audience quickly, and the busiest periods are the times when leisure travel already peaks. For a studio complex built around production schedules, the steady flow of paying guests adds a second kind of traffic through the same gates.

A shoot built for paying guests

Director Wang Weili described a National Day holiday schedule that ran "from morning until dark", with guests still left over who could not be fitted in. The account points to demand that outstripped the available shooting slots during a holiday week, when many people in China travel. Wang's working day during that period was filled with back-to-back groups, each arriving in costume and ready to perform a short scene.

Clare Huang, who played an empress in her group's palace drama, told Reuters that she had loved "playing director" as a child, getting other children to act out scenes. The adult version of that game now comes with hair, makeup, costumes, and a director on hand to shape the performance. Huang travelled with friends for the shoot, and the group treated the day as a shared outing built around dressing up and performing together.

For 388 yuan ($55) each, Huang and her friends received hair and makeup, costumes, a 30-minute directed shoot, and a 90-second edited video. Guests can choose from more than 20 scripts, most involving palace intrigue, romance, or betrayal. The fixed length of the shoot and the finished video give the package a clear shape: guests arrive, prepare, perform, and depart with a short film that can be shared afterwards.

Another customer, Xie, a 28-year-old influencer who gave only her family name, travelled to Hengdian after seeing videos of the shoots on social media. She paid 498 yuan ($70) for a solo session based on an original script. Xie said China has no proms, so people go out in costume instead, and many are willing to "dress up a bit more boldly" and present themselves in the best way they can. Her trip shows how clips of other guests' shoots can turn into bookings, as viewers see the finished videos online and decide to book a session of their own.

The social media route matters because the product itself is visual. A finished video of a palace scene is easy to share, and each shared clip advertises the next booking. Guests who arrive in groups bring friends into the frame, while solo visitors such as Xie arrive with a script idea already in mind. In both cases, the studio sells a short, directed performance rather than a passive tour of a backlot.

Why spending shifted toward experiences

The attraction reflects a broader shift in Chinese consumer spending, according to Reuters. While a slowing economy and a prolonged property slump have weighed on purchases of luxury goods and home furnishings, consumers have continued to spend on travel, entertainment, and experiences. That pattern has fuelled demand for immersive attractions such as live-action role-playing games, historical re-enactments, and interactive film shoots, all of which sell participation rather than a physical object.

The contrast helps explain why a film studio can sell short shoots at a time when spending on goods has softened. A costume session and an edited video are not purchases to display at home in the usual sense; they are a day out, a performance, and a clip to keep. The studio's offer fits a market in which people still spend, but direct more of that spending toward trips, shows, and activities that can be shared with friends or posted online.

The complex behind the offer has deep roots in professional production. According to the Hengdian Group, the studio traces its start to 1996, when Guangzhou Street was built for filming The Opium War. Its sets now include the Palace of Qin, the Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Dream Valley, the Dream Bund, and New Yuanmingyuan, spanning a long sweep of Chinese history. That catalogue of standing sets is what makes the visitor shoots possible: the rooms and streets already exist, dressed and ready for a camera.

For guests, the draw is the chance to stand where professional productions stand, in costume, with direction and a finished clip at the end. For the studio, the visitor shoots put the same sets to a second use, bringing in travellers who arrive because they watched period dramas filmed there. The full Reuters account is available in the Reuters report on the Hengdian shoots, and readers can follow more film stories on the site's Culture topic page, including recent film coverage.