iQIYI debuts tech-driven indoor theme park in Yangzhou

China – Entertainment and streaming powerhouse iQIYI has debuted iQIYI LAND in Yangzhou, its first global offline theme park, where fans can experience popular dramas and characters in real life.

Covering roughly 10,000 square metres, iQIYI LAND features a compact indoor design that allows for year-round operation and rapid IP refresh cycles. Unlike traditional outdoor theme parks, it uses digital production and immersive engineering to enable fast iteration and seamless content integration.

The park includes seven core experience zones. Immersive theatres feature a flagship ride combining VR, motion systems, scent, wind, sound, and live actors. Visitors enter story worlds such as Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, participating in interactive missions and reliving key scenes with synchronised voice acting, motion platforms, and sensory effects.

Light-and-shadow spaces recreate cinematic environments from series such as To the Wonder and Love Between Fairy and Devil. Visitors can walk through dynamic visual settings and trigger story elements through their movements. Immersive stage performances integrate LED screens, rotating stages, projections, and live actors. For instance, Mysterious Lotus Casebook blends martial arts choreography with cinematic effects, combining drama and technology.

The park also features iconic film-and-TV scene photo spots, reconstructing recognisable locations such as Gao Qiqiang’s house from The Knockout, Zhang Fengxia’s grocery store from To the Wonder, and canal teahouse scenes from Northward.

Live character interactions allow performers to act as IP characters, creating surprise storylines and role-play experiences. Visitors can unlock hidden plots and immerse themselves directly in the narratives. Social game zones provide multiplayer competitions projected on LED screens, adding a layer of spectator engagement. Themed restaurants and merchandise shops round out the experience, offering IP-inspired menus and limited-edition collectibles as part of the storytelling.

iQIYI LAND aims to extend IP lifecycles and deepen fan engagement, supporting future content releases. The Yangzhou park is the first of several planned locations, with new sites under development in Kaifeng, Henan Province, and Beijing. By blending local culture with storytelling and digital innovation, iQIYI seeks to attract audiences beyond screens and contribute to China’s cultural tourism sector.

As the country’s first immersive indoor theme park developed by a streaming platform, the launch represents a major milestone in iQIYI’s strategy to integrate technology with creativity and expand its IP value beyond streaming.

The opening ceremony brought together iQIYI executives, local partners, industry leaders, celebrities, and members. Cast members from hit dramas made surprise appearances across themed zones, marking the transformation of popular screen narratives into interactive experiences for the park’s first visitors from across China.

Yu Gong, founder and CEO of iQIYI, said, “At iQIYI, we have spent 15 years forging emotional bonds online. With iQIYI LAND, we’re bringing that connection into the real world. By blending original Chinese IP with immersive technologies such as VR and AI, we are pioneering a next-generation, interactive theme park deeply tied to our content. As demand for offline entertainment surges, we see iQIYI LAND as a new driver for our long-term growth.”