The Hong Kong that stands in Zhejiang: Hengdian's replica street, one room deep

The Hong Kong you have seen in mainland period drama — tram rails in wet asphalt, signage cantilevered over a narrow road, balconies stacked four storeys up — is mostly filmed in a landlocked stretch of central Zhejiang, in a county called 东阳 (Dongyang). The street is called 香港街 (Xianggang Jie, Hong Kong Street). It has never been in Hong Kong.

A film city that started with one street

横店 (Hengdian) was farmland with a light-industry town attached until 1996, when a production needed 1840s Canton and the county simply built it: a waterfront of arcaded shophouses, granite steps down to the water, a customs house. The film was 鸦片战争 (Yapian Zhanzheng, The Opium War), and when shooting finished the set stayed. Hong Kong Street was grafted onto the far end before the decade was out, and the two now share a ticket gate.

One room deep

You can cross most shopfronts here in three steps. The facades are plaster and painted timber over a frame, with scaffolding and cable drums stacked behind them, and doors that open onto storage. The signs are in traditional characters — a pawnshop, a herbal medicine hall, a rice merchant — advertising businesses that never traded for a day. The tram rails are real steel, set into the road, and they stop where the camera stops.

A set only has to be true from one angle.

Visiting while the crews are working

Hengdian is not one park but a cluster of them, each ticketed separately with combination tickets sold at the gates. 秦王宫 (Qin Wang Gong, the Qin Palace) went up two years after Guangzhou Street for another historical production and remains the most photographed of the group. Crews shoot most weekdays, which is the argument for coming on one: blocks get roped off, and you wait behind a runner in a headset while day-rate extras, known locally as 横漂 (hengpiao), sit in costume on the kerb with milk tea.

Getting there is unglamorous. High-speed trains stop at 义乌 (Yiwu); light rail and a local bus finish the trip east, about an hour and a half door to door. Mornings are quieter, and the light on Hong Kong Street is better before the crews claim it.

香港街上的招牌全是繁体字，可这些店铺从未做过一天生意。