Qingdao Movie Metropolis opens with a splash

Inside a soundstage in western Qingdao, Shandong province, actors from the action-thriller The Teacher are performing a series of chase-and-combat sequences for a group of onlookers. The demonstration was part of a string of events held on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Qingdao Movie Metropolis, which is said to be the largest film-studio complex in the world. Qingdao Movie Metropolis, said to be the world's largest film-studio complex, opens in Qingdao, the seaside city in Shandong province, on April 28. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Wang said the facility will firmly place Qingdao on the international cinematic circuit and turn the eastern coastal city into a global movie hub. With a long history connected to cinema - the first documentary shot in China was made in Qingdao in 1898 and China's first movie with sound, Sing-song Girl Red Peony, was made there in 1931 - the city was named by UNESCO as a "city of film" in November, the first of its kind in China.