Hebei Travel: Entering the 'Only the Dream of the Red Chamber' Drama Fantasy City (Photos)

Going to the International Drama Commune Resort in Langfang, Hebei to watch 'Drama Fantasy City: Only the Dream of the Red Chamber' has become a very popular choice for tourists and literary enthusiasts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

On the morning of May 14, 2025, as a gift for us, our parents, our daughter took us to the 'Drama Fantasy City: Only the Dream of the Red Chamber' scenic area to experience it. Over the course of two days, we watched a total of 16 productions, including indoor and outdoor theatrical performances and scene shows. It was truly rewarding.

Entering the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Upon first entering Langfang's 'Only the Dream of the Red Chamber • Drama Fantasy City', I was immediately drawn to the 16 Chinese-style gateways, each with its own distinct style. Passing through the gateways, 108 scene spaces unfolded like a scroll, making one feel as if in a dreamlike world of the Red Chamber.

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Passerby)

In the garden spaces, there were the 'leaky windows borrowing views' of Suzhou gardens, the 'Tongjian Qiufeng' (Phoenix Trees Cutting Autumn Wind) replicating the plaque of Qiushuang Studio from the original novel, and the 'Qiwen Ruohe' scene space with dappled light and shadow, where characters on the ground were clearly visible. Every step revealed a new view, showcasing the subtlety and exquisiteness of Chinese aesthetics.

A Corner of the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Over two days, we watched performances of 16 plays, including 'The 35th Middle School', 'Reader's Theater', '36 Jia Shanghai Road', 'Four Waters Return to the Hall', 'Something from Nothing', 'Tube Building', 'Impermanence', 'Reincarnation', 'Second Store', 'Words Cannot Express All', 'Stone Fool', 'Stone Fool 2', 'True or False', 'Only the Dream of the Red Chamber', 'Siheyuan', and 'Just Try It'.

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Passerby)

These plays varied in performance style and spanned a wide time frame. Each theater and space carried unique emotions and stories, and every play had its merits. While enjoying them, one could not help but ponder issues of life, destiny, and emotions.

Stills from 'The 35th Middle School' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Although the two days of watching plays were tiring, I am willing to share some of the plays with you. 'The 35th Middle School' is a moving + seated performance, recreating a 1987 middle school classroom and graduation ceremony, allowing the audience to recall their school days and memories of 'Dream of the Red Chamber'. Teachers and classmates interacted randomly, creating a strong sense of immersion.

Entering the Reader's Theater (Photo: Wang Jue)

'Reader's Theater' is one of the core theaters of the Only the Dream of the Red Chamber Drama Fantasy City. During the performance, the audience moves from the backstage continuously into the main theater space, watching one story line before moving to the next space, experiencing the progression of the plot in different dramatic spaces.

Waiting at the Reader's Theater (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The entire theater has 7 dramatic spaces and 3 entrances. The audience is divided into 3 groups and enters different spaces. Each group sees a different story line, requiring at least 3 visits to see all story lines.

Stills from the Reader's Theater (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

For example, the first space uses a female reader's recitation to introduce the character Jia Baoyu in the play. Through 12 red doors in the circular theater, it stages important scenes in Baoyu's life: his first meeting with Daiyu, their first intimate encounter, reading The Western Chamber together, visiting Qingwen, Baoyu's wedding, and so on. The second space uses a male reader to introduce Wang Xifeng, selecting episodes like managing the Rongguo Mansion and poisoning You Erjie to depict her life.

Stills from the Reader's Theater (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The play uses a dialogue format between readers and characters from the book, allowing the audience to see a different Jia Baoyu, Wang Xifeng, and other figures. The stage surrounds the audience, and the actors' performance is intense, creating strong immersion. This unique and innovative performance style enables the audience to experience the details up close. It was truly eye-opening.

Stills from '36 Jia Shanghai Road' (Photo: Wang Jue)

The small indoor play '36 Jia Shanghai Road' tells the story of an antique dealer in the Republic of China era searching for missing pages of a 'Dream of the Red Chamber' picture book. Two young people, after discovering the missing pages, imagine its past and present and travel back to 1917 to participate in the search. The play left a lasting impression.

Stills from 'Something from Nothing' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The large indoor theater production 'Something from Nothing' is also a seated performance. It recreates the Illusory Land of Great Void, presenting the stories of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling through dialogue between Cao Xueqin and the beauties. The audience can immerse themselves in watching a summary of the entire 'Dream of the Red Chamber' and reflect on the deeper meaning of the characters' fates. The water stage in particular was stunning.

Stills from 'Something from Nothing' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

'Tube Building' is an outdoor small theater performance at the Only the Dream of the Red Chamber Drama Fantasy City. In the tube building live various young people: Ah Qi and Ah Qiang from the hair salon, Shuai Xiao who sells CDs, Yang Sao from the convenience store, Nan Jie from the noodle shop, Old Lang, and Bald Xu. During this special time on the cusp of the new century, they face confusion and an unknown but hopeful future. They get married, have children, and grow old in the bustling collective life, enacting their own comedies and tragedies of life.

Stills from 'Tube Building' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The characters in the play dislike Teacher Zhang, who talks about 'Dream of the Red Chamber', reflecting the attitudes people had toward the novel at that time, as well as the social atmosphere and living conditions of that era. The tube building is a set built to scale, performing at nightfall. When the lights come on, the audience sits on open-air stepped seats, and the actors perform the stories of the building right beside the audience, making it feel as if the audience is truly experiencing everything happening among the neighbors in the tube building, reliving a piece of history and spirit from the pre-millennium era of 1999.

Stills from 'Stone Fool' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

'Stone Fool' is also a small theater production. Although it is just a two-person show, it is performed in two rooms facing each other, one ancient and one modern. Based on the story of Stone Fool in 'Dream of the Red Chamber', it tells of Stone Fool who refuses to sell his family's collection of ancient fans to Jia She. He is falsely accused by Jia Yucun of owing official silver and his home is ransacked. Eventually, Stone Fool hangs himself, but before doing so, he entrusts a yamen runner to plead for justice. However, the play does not present this story in full; instead, through a leap-frog structure of beginning, development, transition, and conclusion, it explores philosophical insights into 'Dream of the Red Chamber'.

Photo with the actor of Stone Fool (Photo: Wang Jue)

This play is the only small production in the Fantasy City with live dialogue. Though small, it leaves a deep impact. It does not reenact the story from 'Dream of the Red Chamber' but serves as a re-creation by the creators based on their thoughts, interpretations, and sentiments about the novel, provoking the audience's own reflections.

Stills from 'True or False' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

'True or False' is one of the three main theaters of the Only the Dream of the Red Chamber Drama Fantasy City, offering a unique viewing experience and profound meaning. It is also a one-of-a-kind experience for the audience to enjoy theatrical performances with eyes wide open.

Stills from 'True or False' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The audience enters from the backstage, first visiting the actors' dressing rooms and the backstage area of the theater, watching the final preparations of the actors, and preparing together with them. Then, the audience first goes on stage while the actors sit in the audience, with 'watching' and 'being watched' switching repeatedly, making the audience part of the plot. This aligns with the theme from 'Dream of the Red Chamber': 'When false is taken for true, true becomes false.'

Stills from 'True or False' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The entire theater has 7 dramatic spaces and 3 different story lines. After watching one story line, the audience moves to the next space, sometimes walking, sometimes sitting, and together with the readers in the play, they 'read' about the decline of the Jia Mansion and the lives of characters like Baoyu and Wang Xifeng.

Stills from 'Siheyuan' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The play 'Siheyuan' uses a replicated traditional Beijing courtyard house (siheyuan) as its setting, presenting the lives of three groups of tenants from the 1950s, 1980s, and post-millennium. It projects the metaphor of 'the shattered beauties' from 'Dream of the Red Chamber' onto modern women, showcasing the ups and downs of ordinary people in a grand era.

Stills from 'Just Try It' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Apart from the plays introduced above, productions like 'Words Cannot Express All', 'Second Store', 'Impermanence', and 'Reincarnation' each have their own merits, but due to space constraints, they will not be described.

Memory in the Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

The two-day journey through the Drama Fantasy City was not only a feast for the eyes and ears but also a spiritual journey of deep dialogue with 'Dream of the Red Chamber'.

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Shi)

Through the perfect combination of modern technology and stage art, the story of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' is presented in a new form, allowing people to understand and appreciate this classic work from different perspectives.

Stills from 'Only the Dream of the Red Chamber' (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Seeing some comments about the Drama Fantasy City online, they are really well said. One article expressed it this way: This Drama Fantasy City, costing billions and taking eight years to build, is not so much a reproduction of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' as it is a deconstruction and reconstruction of the classic text.

Inside the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Chief Director Wang Chaoge, with her signature 'Impression' style, breaks down Cao Xueqin's Grand View Garden into countless fragments and then reassembles them under the collective gaze of contemporary audiences. This bold creative stance is both a tribute to and a challenge to the classic—when the 'Red Chamber' is placed in the context of the 'Fantasy City', the boundaries between tradition and modernity, literature and drama, reality and illusion are completely blurred, leaving only an aesthetic adventure about memory, emotion, and identity.

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Wang Jue)

In particular, watching a video of Wang Chaoge talking about 'Drama Fantasy City: Only the Dream of the Red Chamber' left a deep impression on me.

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Wang Jue)

Wang Chaoge said: When traveling, never forget what 'content' means. The more people there are in one place, you will find a word called 'content'. Actually, looking at rivers, mountains, streams, and seas is all blank, but some thick 'content' will make you want to go again and again. It will linger in your heart after you leave, unforgettable, making you feel that it not only nourishes your eyes but also nourishes your soul, and you will feel that this nourishment has a lasting effect.

Landscape inside the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Shi)

What impressed me most over the two days was the sheer size of the entire Drama Fantasy City. In my opinion, the scenes inside from ancient times to the present are no less impressive than those of a film and television base. And while watching, our family left behind many beautiful memories of time.

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Passerby)

During the two days in Langfang, we watched sixteen plays at the 'Drama Fantasy City: Only the Dream of the Red Chamber'. Although it was quite physically demanding, it left a lasting aftertaste... As the WeChat message our daughter sent us after watching said: Dear Mom and Dad, the two-day Drama Fantasy City trip has ended! Although it was tiring, we enjoyed such a grand theatrical feast, and it was also fortunate and happy...

Memory at the Drama Fantasy City (Photo: Feng Ganyong)

Only love is the most precious in the world! And we are exactly a family blessed with this most precious gift! I am grateful that you are my parents, allowing me to be free and happy from childhood to adulthood. In life, may we always live for ourselves. Always free... I really like the line from 'Four Waters Return to the Hall': 'Money and liking, liking wins, money loses.' May we always have this passion and freedom for life! Always love you! (Text and Photos: Feng Ganyong)