Garden of dreams – A visit to Dream of the Red Chamber’s filming locations

The TV team chose to build Rongguo House in Hebei to save on cost. The decision was later deemed serendipitous, since Zhengding County turned out to be the hometown of one of Cao Xueqin’s ancestors.

Rongguo House, built in 1986, is a cluster of Qing-era buildings with more than 200 rooms and 100 corridors. Ningrong Street, meanwhile, is an imitation of an ancient commercial street, filled with shops and restaurants.

The series was filmed there for about two months, and later the place also featured in films set in Ming (1368-1644) and Qing.