Guandong Film and Television Town

The Guandong Film and Television Town is a 280,000-square-metre open-air film set and tourist attraction inside the Qipan Mountain International Scenic Tourism Development Zone, on the southeastern shore of Xiu Lake. Built to serve both as a working location for film and television productions and as a walkable attraction for general visitors, it is one of the most distinctive cultural sites in northeast China.

The town is a meticulously recreated cross-section of 1920s and 1930s Shenyang, with 177 period-style buildings arranged across seven themed zones. Streetscapes imitate the shopfronts, civic buildings, teahouses, banks, and residential lanes of pre-war Shenyang — the era when the city was known internationally as Mukden and was one of the most cosmopolitan and contested urban centres in northeast Asia.

Walking through the town feels less like a film studio and more like a wander through a vanished Republican-era city. Hand-painted shop signs, period street furniture, vintage tram tracks, and dressed interiors all contribute to the atmosphere. Costumed staff, occasional street performances, and seasonal festivals add further layers of immersion.

For Chinese-language productions, the town has been used as a backdrop for numerous dramas set in the warlord and occupation eras, when Shenyang was the political and military fulcrum of Manchuria. International travellers may not recognise the specific titles, but the historical sweep of the period — late-Qing collapse, warlord politics, Japanese occupation, and eventual liberation — is conveyed through the exhibition panels and bilingual signage.

The site is best visited in combination with the wider Qipan Mountain area: pair it with a morning at the Forest Zoo, lunch by Xiu Lake, and an afternoon walking the Guandong Town streets. Allow at least two hours for the town itself; longer if you join a guided tour or catch one of the live performances.