Nation's answer to Hollywood rising on eastern coast

Local leaders of Qingdao aim to transform the coastal city in Shandong province into China's answer to Hollywood.

To this end, the world's biggest movie studio project was launched in the city on Sept 22.

With an investment from property and entertainment conglomerate Wanda Group of 30 billion yuan (almost $5 billion), the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will be a mega-industrial park that performs multiple functions.

It will consist of filmmaking studios and exhibitions as well as other cultural and tourism facilities, such as museums, hotels and yacht clubs.

The launch ceremony of the project was attended by more than 60 celebrities, including Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Travolta and Nicole Kidman as well as A-list Chinese stars like Zhang Ziyi and Jet Li.

"Qingdao is full of amazing natural scenery, has a distinctive modern urban vista and is home to a rich accumulation of historical resources," said Li Qun, Party chief of Qingdao, at a recent film industry forum. "In addition, it has been crowned as the 'World Architecture Exhibition' as well as the 'Natural Movie Studio'."

The city is already known for Tsingtao beer and Olympic Sailing Games. In the future, another title might be added to the city's branding portfolio - "Mecca of Chinese Movies".

Following in the footsteps of Hollywood and India's Bollywood, Qingdao will be the third center for movie production, and it will directly compete with the world's best filming destinations, experts said.

In recent years a number of movie events were held in Qingdao. They include the Awards of China Film Performing Art and the China International Children's Film Festival.

In addition, several movie institutes have settled in Qingdao, such as the China Film Trade Center, Beijing Film Academy and the Modern Creative Media College.

Every year, more than 200 movies are shot in Qingdao because its azure sky, green lands, golden beaches and diverse architecture offer ideal backdrops for filming.

Many movie directors have recognized that Qingdao is such a photogenic city that every corner of it can be utilized as a film set.

Qingdao was one of the earliest cities that witnessed the charm of movies, and its connection with filmmaking can be traced back to the 1890s.

"If we were to survey cities from across the world to find examples of early filmmaking activities, Qingdao would stand out," Li said, "The very first movie shot in Qingdao took place in 1898, three years after the birth of world's first movie."

In the winter of 1898, a German photographer came to Qingdao and made a documentary about the city, the very first documentary shot in China. Then some early movie theaters were built in Qingdao, including the Prince Henry Hotel Music Hall on Guangxi Road and the Auditorium of the Navy on Zhongshan Road.

Soon afterward, a number of Chinese filmmakers started to produce their own works in Qingdao, including the famous script writer Hong Shen, "movie poet" Sun Yu and renowned 1930s movie star Jin Yan.

The early Chinese movies in Qingdao include Children of Troubled Times and Return to the Nature.

Now people can see a movie being filmed almost every day in Qingdao.