In a quiet corner of Songjiang district, trams still run up and down Nanking Lu, while glamorous women are carried over the Waibaidu Bridge by scruffy looking street urchins. With a number of scale replicas of ‘old Shanghai’ landmarks, The Shanghai Film Park in Chedun has been the setting for films such as Lust, Caution and Kung Fu Hustle, and continues to draw visitors throughout the year to watch the filming of a soap or just snap a selfie.
The park has definitely seen better days and is a little tatty in places, but it nonetheless offers an interesting glimpse into the workings of the silver screen; you can peek behind building facades and catch craftsmen putting together props and preparing the sets for filming – you may even stumble across an actual shoot.
You can also ride the aforementioned trams, watch comedy martial arts and stunt shows (scheduled at 10.30am and 1.30pm each day), and, of course rent costumes to take pictures on the sets. It’s not exactly Universal Studios, but a trip to Chedun certainly makes for an unusual day out.
Be warned though, for downtown or Pudong residents, the park takes a little while to get to; it’s around an hour away from Xujiahui by car, and almost three hours away by public transport – and involves a roughly 50RMB taxi from Songjiang Xincheng station on Line 9.
