The thrilling and fabulous sites of the Oscar nominated foreign language film Hero have attracted a number of tourists since opening to the public half a month ago.
The site of the artificial grand palace of China's Qin Dynasty as seen in the film locates in a film shooting ground in Hengdian City of east China's Zhejiang Province, where all takes of the palace in the movie were shot.
The Qin palace recreation was built in 1998 for another movie about the Qin Dynasty directed by Chen Kaige, director of the Golden Palm prizewinner Farewell My Concubine.
To serve the shooting of Hero, it took four months to renovate the site, though the shooting itself only took two and a half months.
Three other major scenes were shot there outside the studio, including the one where the assassin, Wuming ("Nameless"), dueled with another warrior, Changkong, in the rain.
About 700 cubic meters of wood was used to build two of the three filming sites, with an investment of one million yuan.
The chariots, arrows and armor used in the movie are on display and some parts of the movie are replayed by actors on the sites.
Tourists are even able to experience being the ancient Chinese heroes by performing such feats as flying back and forth with wires.
(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2003)
