When it comes to Chinese cinema, royal palaces or kungfu master hideouts often come to mind. But what you might not know, is that many such scenes are filmed in a remote Chinese town, which is now home to the world's largest outdoor studio. As industry professionals gather at the Shanghai International Film Festival to discuss China's cinema development, CGTN's Xu Mengqi shows us the town of Hengdian, to see that development first hand.  

It's where many film memories are made, often invoking a sense of wonderment in audiences. You see it in the epic historical sweep of Zhang Yimou's Hero, and the Kungfu fantasies in Rob Minkoff's The Forbidden Kingdom. This is Hengdian, a remote town tucked away in eastern China's mountainous Zhejiang province. Yet with 21 filming lots sprawled over an incredible 30 square kilometers, it is home to the largest outdoor studio in the world.

YIN XU, VICE PRESIDENT HENGDIAN GROUP "You can see our development to the scale today, as a microcosm of the development of China's film and TV industry. As dramas and movies flourish, they need more scenes and so we continue to build to meet that need."

XU MENGQI HENGDIAN "With the right costumes, you can literally travel through China's thousands of years of history here in Hengdian. There is even a copy of the Forbidden City, for crews that can't really film in the real one in Beijing."

But with hundreds of crews coming to Hengdian every year, there is an increasing demand for more original sets.

PAN WENHUA, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER HAKIM UNIQUE MEDIA "Hengdian is a first choice for historical costume dramas. But with all the stories being made here, the visuals are also becoming less exciting for audiences."

That is where green screens and digital technologies come in, and crews can customize a set to their liking.

CAO ZHENGZHI, ENGINE SUPPORT DIRECTOR SURREAL FILM PRODUCTION (SHANGHAI). CO.LTD "We'll do photogrammetry on all of Hengdian's real sets, so they can be used digitally. The advantage of having a digital copy of your real set is you can do creative things to it."

YIN XU, VICE PRESIDENT HENGDIAN GROUP "Offering smart digital solutions is a must. In recent years the number of our studios has risen all the way from 20 to 87 now. By the end of 2021 or early 2022, we should have an estimated 200 studios."

From the first set built in 1996, to more than 100 lots and studios today, Hengdian's growth in just a little over two decades is perhaps as magical as the films made here. But next time you see a movie with replica Chinese palaces and historical streets, it may just become harder to tell whether it is the real Hengdian, or the digital one. XMQ, CGTN.