The Early Spring quickly became one of the Chinese dramas everyone was talking about this year. Jing Boran and Sun Qian’s Luan Nian aka Luke and Shang Zitao aka Flora’s complicated relationship kept viewers invested across 24 episodes, taking them from a boss-employee equation to a romance tested by years of separation. The drama, which premiered on August 26 on Netflix and Youku, also had plenty going for it outside the central love story, including its soundtrack and the title track sung by actor-singer Liu Yuning. But there was another detail that was easy to miss while following their story: the cities were almost characters in their own right.
The Early Spring was filmed across real locations. The production spent around three months shooting between September and November 2025, moving between Beijing’s crowded business districts and Harbin’s snow-covered streets, historic buildings and distinctive architecture.
Directed by Jiang Ji Zheng and adapted from Gu Niang Bie Ku’s web novel Zao Chun Qing Lang, The Early Spring has gone onto become of the most popular dramas of the year. If you found yourself wondering where a particular scene was filmed while watching the drama, here’s a closer look at some of the real locations featured in the series.
1. Beijing’s corporate world
A major part of The Early Spring is set in the advertising world. Shang Zhitao arrives in Beijing determined to build a career for herself and soon finds a job at Lingmei, a leading advertising agency. It is there that she crosses paths with Luan Nian, the agency’s strict and demanding creative director. Instead of recreating the entire workplace on sets, the drama filmed across several real locations in Beijing. Some of the city’s modern business spaces become an important part of Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian’s story.
The Asia Financial Center and the AIIB Headquarters, both located near the Olympic Park, in China, are among the locations featured early in the series. Its expansive contemporary atrium was used for the first meeting between Shang Zhitao and Luan Nian in the first episode.
The production also filmed at the Beijing Kerry Centre and CP Center in Chaoyang. Real office and lobby spaces were used for several scenes, while the surrounding business district adds to the scale of Luan Nian’s professional world.
There is a noticeable coolness to these workplace sequences. The glass walls, modern offices and muted tones make the advertising agency feel almost as controlled as Luan Nian himself, giving the early episodes a distinct visual identity.
2. Shang Zhitao’s home in Tiantongyuan
The drama did not spend all its time inside sleek offices and polished workspaces. Once Shang Zhitao heads home, her world looks very different. Her apartment scenes were filmed in Tiantongyuan, one of Beijing’s largest residential communities, with the production using East District 1 and West District 2 as the setting for her shared home. These scenes offer a glimpse into the more regular side of Zhitao’s life away from work.
3. Harbin locations
When the drama follows Zhitao to her hometown after her breakup with Luan Nian, the series takes on a completely different look. The fast-paced streets and towering buildings of Beijing give way to Harbin’s snowy roads, old-world buildings and distinctly European-inspired architecture. The change in setting also shifts the mood of the story, making it feel more intimate and nostalgic despite the freezing temperatures.
One of the most striking locations is Saint Sophia Cathedral. The area around the cathedral and Architectural Art Square features in several of the show’s winter scenes. With its green-domed Russian Orthodox church and rows of historic buildings, the location brings a sense of character to the scenes without needing much production dressing.
Central Street, or Zhongyang Dajie, is another recognisable Harbin landmark featured in the series. The pedestrian street is lined with European-style architecture, shops and restaurants, giving the show another distinctly local backdrop.
One of the more unusual locations is the Old Couple’s Tavern, when they reunite at her parents’ restaurant in Harbin after their breakup. The production found a real Russian-style private restaurant on West 13th Street in Harbin and transformed it into the fictional tavern seen in the drama.
For the production, the restaurant was given a fictional makeover and became the Old Couple’s Tavern, a location featured in the story. According to local reports, the crew spent several days filming there, while the guesthouse upstairs was also transformed into the home of Zhitao’s parents.
Another notable Harbin filming location was the Donghechang 1917 Wide Street Cultural Complex, where the team spent two days shooting scenes for the drama. According to Harbin Daily, the production used the historic red-brick buildings and surrounding streets as part of the show’s visual setting. The restored complex adds a distinctly old-world texture to the Harbin portions of the story.
4. Jinlong Mountain brought the shoot to an end
Some of the drama’s most memorable winter sequences were filmed at Jinlong Mountain near Harbin, which doubled as a European holiday destination. The snowy mountains, dense forests and winter setting gave the production the right backdrop for scenes that were supposed to take place abroad.
One of the key sequences filmed here was Luan Nian’s spontaneous Swiss ski resort trip. Although the story places him in Switzerland, the scenes were actually shot at the Junwang Mountain camping base in the Jinlong Mountain area. The location’s snow-covered landscape helped recreate the look of the Alps, while a European-style holiday cabin was used for scenes where the characters drink and talk.
Junwang Mountain was also used for the emotional sequence after the couple’s breakup. Luan Nian travels abroad to see the aurora and makes a tearful phone call, and those scenes were filmed at the same location.
Jinlong Mountain was the final filming location for the drama, with production wrapping on November 26, 2025. The production reportedly left the cabin’s interior furnishings behind after filming, and the space has since attracted fans who want to visit the location and see the setting from the drama for themselves.
5. The Tibet of Chaoyang District
The scenes that make it look like Luan Nian and Shang Zhitao have travelled to Tibet after reconcilling for the second time were actually shot in Beijing. This marked the beginning of their relationship taking another leap of faith and their families had begun to know about each other.
The location was the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, also known as Minzu Park, in Chaoyang District, not far from the Bird’s Nest stadium. The large cultural park features replicas of traditional buildings and landmarks representing all 56 of China’s officially recognised ethnic groups. For the Tibet portions of the story, the production used the park’s Tibetan village section.
The area has Tibetan-style temples, prayer flags and traditional architecture, which helped create the right setting for the scenes. With tight framing and carefully chosen camera angles, the crew was able to keep the modern parts of Beijing out of the shots and make the location look much more remote.
What is The Early Spring about?
The story follows Shang Zhitao (Sun Qian), a young woman who leaves her hometown for Beijing in search of better opportunities. With an average academic background, she never expects to land a job at Lime, one of the world’s top advertising agencies. On her very first day, she meets Luan Nian (Jing Boran), Lime’s strict and blunt creative director, who soon becomes her boss. What starts as a strained equation between the two slowly turns into a secret relationship that continues for six years.
But their relationship eventually hits a breaking point as misunderstandings and the realities of life come in the way. Shang Zhitao walks away without saying goodbye, leaving their story unfinished. Years later, the two cross paths again, giving them an opportunity to address the things they never said and understand what went wrong. “A warmhearted new employee and her gifted boss navigate a fast-paced workplace, all while harboring a secret relationship that may jeopardize everything,” reads the official Netflix synopsis.
