Trending in Beijing: Universal Studios Anticipation, Celebrity Spotting, and Crowds at Forbidden City Night Opening

The fun, the strange, and the what-on-earth-is-this: a wrap-up of top stories in Beijing as told by the trending hashtags, local press, and general power of the internet.
 

1) Universal Studios confirm Beijing theme park opening date (again)

Buckle up and get ready for a ride! The fifth Universal Studios-branded theme park in the world is due to open in Tongzhou district in 2021. The project was first officially announced in 2014 and set to open in 2018. As is sometimes (*cough* always *cough*) the case with China's construction projects, the opening date was delayed until 2019. Now, the new opening date has been penned for 2021. 

The Universal Studios theme park will cover around 54 hectares (although other reports claim it is actually as high as 120 hectares) of the giant 400-hectare Universal Beijing Resort. Besides the theme park, the resort also includes the world's first Universal themed hotel, a water park, and city walk. Theme park enthusiasts are already sneaking around the site and sharing information in online theme-park fan forums. Yep, they're a thing, and thank god for that because the official Universal Studios Beijing Weibo account is still devoid of any content and the website only offers generic artist's impression pictures. We wouldn't get too excited just yet.
 

2) Getting tickets for Forbidden City night opening doesn't come easy

When they decided to extend their opening hours for the first time in 94 years, the Forbidden City staff apparently didn't anticipate just how much excitement there would be. To mark Lantern Festival earlier this week, the Palace Museum, as it's officially known, was adorned with lanterns, LEDs, and lights worthy of a U2 concert. Celebratory postcard-ish pictures were also projected on the Supreme Harmony Gate and Chinese paintings on the roofs of the buildings.

However, the event, which lasted for a short two-day stint, did not go off without a glitch or two. Netizens followed the topic under  #故宫院长回应夜场一票难求# (the President of the Palace Museum responds to the difficulty of acquiring night tickets) after Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, did just that (video in Chinese). Additionally, those who were lucky enough to nab tickets to the hottest light show this side of Ibiza only got a puny 30 minutes to enjoy their late-night visit given that they had to choose a half-hour slot between 6.30pm and 9.30pm. The director admitted that the time per visitor was quite short, but was decided upon in order to accommodate the anticipated 3,000 visitors each evening. In fact, 500 tickets for the first night went unclaimed (though finding them was near impossible, made even harder by the fact the online ticketing system crashed shortly after launching). The second night completely sold out.

According to Shan, visitors won't need to wait another century until the next moonlit event with plans to repeat the spectacle on the upcoming Mid-Autumn, Dragon Boat, and Double Nine festivals. He added that they hope to implement a similar night-time tour, which should prove a huge draw for ghosthunters given that the Palace Museum's infamously haunted grounds.
 

3) Young actor Chen Feiyu spotted queueing for the Beijing Film Academy entry exam

Remember how we mentioned how netizens were lurking in the bushes, hoping to spot celebrities attending entry exams at the Central Academy of Drama last week? Well, it finally happened, but at a different school. The 18-year old actor Chen Feiyu (陈飞宇), otherwise known as Arthur Chen, was spotted queuing to take the Beijing Film Academy entry examination earlier this week.

Chen is best known for his role in the 2017 coming of age romance film Secret Fruit and the 2018 fantasy TV series Ever Night. As the son of an internationally celebrated director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) and actress Chen Hong, Arthur is not exactly deviating from the family interests by trying his luck at the film academy. Yet before you cry nepotism!, in a short interview after the exam, Arthur claimed he had prepared for the exam mostly by himself. Good Arthur, such a big boy you are.

Weibo is largely behind young Chen, cheering him on under the hashtag #陈飞宇现身北电艺考# (Chen Feiyu appears at the Beijing Film Academy examination), which had garnered over 200 million reads at time of writing. Users mostly wish him well, but one of the most liked comments reeks of sour grapes: "He is bad at studying so can only take art exams." Perhaps the commenter has a bone to pick with the academy, which, as with the other Beijing acting schools, is known for being notoriously difficult to get into.

READ: 38,000 Photogenic Applicants Vie for Spot in World's Hardest-to-Enter School: The Beijing Film Academy

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Images: Theme Parx, Tongzhou New City, Weibo