Shooting Location for The Forbidden Flower

I was wondering where The Forbidden Flower was shot.  They are on an island with seemingly tropical climate,  sandy beaches, beautiful flowers, and lush greens.

After some digging, the location is Wanning, Hainan, which is an island on the southern tip of China.  If you've heard or know where Sanya is, Wanning is 2 hours away, about 80 miles northeast.

Another shooting, for episode 12, at first I thought it looked like it was in Danba "Beauty Valley" of Garze Kham Tibetan Area, because of the typical watchtowers and stone stairways.  

But this is mostly Tibetan population, and in ep13 He Ran tells her mother that she was "in Chuanxi, Aba county" : hometown of Xiao Han and his daughter, to where He Ran has a book about painting sent in ep11, Chuanxi is mentioned again in ep.23 as the mountaintop where the couple kissed in low oxygen. There are some videos of "Chuanxi snowland" on YouTube, but I did not find images that capture the spectacular town entrance in ep.24.

Aba county is some 200 km north of Chengdu (which has a big airport) Roads may be better in that area, despite the 2008 earthquake which sent Wenchuan and Qiang villages to global attention. Many villages were rebuilt including one renamed Jina Qiang village, as a model one to rehouse the homeless of this almost totally destroyed place, adding two decorative watchtowers (diaolou) where there had not been any.

Another strong earthquake affected the Jiuzhaigou area in 2017 and as of 2019, the mountain park and some villages were still struggling to get back on their feet.

Taoping Qiang village picture :

Among the villages mentioned in a page about the Qiang (written by a travel company to advertise their tours in Sichuan), the most visited village for its authenticity is Taoping Qiang village. Here's a short video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4LSLBmpZEU  and a very informative vlog from 2019 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUAUZ8EERg4   

+More info from the article :  "The architecture of some Qiang villages such as Taoping Qiang Village stand out as having a central or western Asian design.

The Qiang people are a quite interesting and culturally distinct Tibetan ethnic minority group in the mountains north of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. There is a population of about 326,500, and most live in and around the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

One of the things that is interesting and strange about them is that though they are categorized and thought of as a people group, from village to village and from valley to valley, the costumes and languages are strikingly different when examined closely.

They live in a beautiful area in high mountains near Juizhaigou Park, have a strange history, and lived isolated in the mountains for thousands of years."

Picture from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/attachement/jpg/site1/20150805/f04da2db1484172bc4ff14.jpg

The Qiang dress differently from Tibetans, and have elevated the art of embroidery to World Heritage level. Here's a short clip showing an embroiderer and some products. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWnMmVFacdU  Another page has these infos to add:

"The Qiang minority mainly gathers in counties of Sichuan like Maoxian, Wenchuan, Lixian of the Aba (Ngawa) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture as well as in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County in Mianyang City. Today's Qiang ethnic minority is the branch that keeps the Qiang ethnic name and best preserves its traditional culture of all ancient Qiang branches.

Both Qiang men and women wear a flax long gown, which is usually white and similar to a Manchu-style dress. Over the long gown is a sheepskin vest, with the fur facing outside in sunny days and inside in rainy days. The Qiang women commonly wear an embroidered black headscarf and men tie a black kerchief round the head.

The typical outfit for Qiang men is a blue-cloth long gown, a sheepskin vest over it and a cyan kerchief round the head. For Qiang women, their dresses are bright-colored and the usual attire is a blue or green lace long gown, with a line of small plum flower-shaped silver ornaments adorning the collar. An embroidered apron with ribbons is tied around the waist and a black headscarf on the head." (made-in-china . com, 2012 article)

Picture of Danba Suopo village :

Fwiw and to get some impression about the Beauty Valley  (populated with Jiarong Tibetans and Qiang) , who have rather similar fortress villages with typical watchtowers, here's more:

"About 350 kilometers west of Chengdu, Danba is a beautiful town in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan province. Tibetan villages in Danba County are culturally rich places" with striking architecture and iconic towers, also featured in this A-Lan MV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyrlvXQfe4w     (A-Lan aka alan dawa dolma is an ethnic Tibetan singer native from Beauty V alley).

Danba county was nicknamed “Beauty Valley” because its  Tibetan women are reputedly  attractive and graceful. There's also a story there: once upon a time, a phoenix flew to Mo’erduo Mountain (Holy Mountain) morphing and spawning thousands of pretty women, which is why women are high of beauty in the area. Every third years, there’s a beauty contest in the county to select the prettiest girl and people come from far away to witness the event. 

AvenueX  only said it was on "southernmost island" Hainan- not a precise location,  like WANNING, Hainan, which Sakie found, presumably from the same c-ent article that I also read. AvenueX also only used two pictures from the drama and no map to  illustrate her statement.  

But there was not a thing in her review about the other locations or if they were pieced together in studio (where? In the relatively new Haikou Movie Town?)  from pictures and small "travelogue" style shots, notably the Qiang village. Or Xijing university (there is one by that name in Xi'an, btw  (but I am only familiar with Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuxi campuses -some shots reminded me vaguely of the latter, but then, many campuses look alike and besides, there can be changes to those campuses, new buildings, old ones torn down etc: over the years the places can modify, esp. in China. ) 

Of course, CGI can do wonders.

https://www.hicn.cn/system/2021/02/17/032510074.shtml  (article about Haikou Movie Town)

I first thought this was made superimposing a CGI image on a garden shoot somewhere in or near  Wanning or Sanya, perhaps near the Marriott resort & spa of Sanya, which does have a chapel by the sea, although it looks different.  I researched some more and found an interesting article about a  project by Indonesian architect Isandra Matin (Andra Matin) . Born in Bandung, 1962, he graduated from Architecture, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung in 1988. He started his career at Grahacipta Hadiprana, for a decade, until 1998 and decided to develop his own firm, andramatin, based in Jakarta.  Among the 15 projects discussed on the following page, #12 is the Hainan chapel :

https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/know-your-architects/a1198-andra-matin-15-iconic-projects/

The following page gives more details : "Chapel in Hainan 2012 - Settling in the middle of a large body of water, the Hainan Chapel is a religious space that was designed as one giant massing as the whole building. With the minimum programming, users may come around the building before discovering the entrance of the chapel. The walk creates a serene tone of the space, as you take in the view of the chapel’s surrounding, a cleansing scenery before entering a pure space. The chapel itself was made out of a single plane, folded almost origami-like that creates a unique exterior form, and an interesting enclosing in its interior. The mass creates two main gates that welcomes the users and deliver them to the natural waterscape outside the chapel."  
https://www.andramatin.com/project/chapel-in-hainan/

AND YES, (edit of April 2023), see below (*), the church DOES exist!♥️    It is on the grounds of the Sunac Legend Hotel, Riyuewan Tourist Resort, Wanning   

It is south of Tiantougang, off Xincun village  (MAP link is now broken, sorry)

And here are some guest reviews with  pictures:

"Both the exterior of the hotel and the interior of the room are beautiful, and you can make films casually! And it's so close to the church, it's very convenient to walk over and take pictures. If my friend wants to come to Riyue Bay, I will definitely recommend Legend Hotel as the first choice. I am not a trustee. The experience of staying is really good! "(Jan22,2023)

"The hotel environment is still very comfortable. The entire hotel environment and appearance are like the style in an oil painting. The poolside room is just outside the swimming pool. It is very convenient for swimming, but I didn’t have this need so I booked a vision room. The environment is full of style ♥️, nearby There is a Riyuewan church⛪️, very beautiful, the light and shadow through the glass of the church is amazing (o^^o), "(Nov15,2022)

"there are only 40 room,. The hotel is on a reclaimed artificial island, a certain distance from the sea, and there is no sandy beach."(March29,2022)

"The hotel is really super super beautiful, but the photography skills are not good. Please refer to the pictures of other guests. The breakfast is too rich. The surrounding chapel must be punched in. During the stay, I encountered Huang Yi's crew filming. "(March10,2022)

Other guests' pictures:

The sequence from end of episode 2 is almost repeated in the "wish dream" like part of last episode, so, it would fit with the imaginary quality of the two sequences : the umbrella become as bright and yellow as the sun in a child's picture is perhaps one clue. The wish is tied to a return thing : Xiao Han "lent" her a black umbrella to shield her from the rain and she wanted to "lend" him in return a yellow umbrella to shield him from the scorching sun, and to embody her own wish that they be sheltered together from all the hazards (giving an umbrella is a taboo, so it cannot be gifted unless wishing to part - but here it was the contrary!). The fulfillment of the wish gives a hopeful quality to the sequences : He Ran managed to get Xiao Han's first agreement to her plan and his phone number in episode 2 ; in the last episode, it is up to audience to interpret it as their own HE wish come true in reality or on another plane of existence...

A special cut shows He Ran showing her ring to Xiao Han, so perhaps, the wish that she would come back healed was fulfilled:

https://twitter.com/pearlapas/status/1636412259743444992

Surf shop featured in the drama is located in Sun and Moon Bay (Riyuewan).

Riyue Bay (or Sun and Moon Bay) has emerged as the surfing capital of China and hosts regular surfing events and competitions.   Below is a picture of a  Riyue Bay hotel.

Tianxin village in Wanning, Hainan province has developed from a small fishing village into a surfing-themed tourism village after years of construction, bolstering villagers' incomes and quality of life.
Tianxin village is located south of Wanning, with Lingshui Li autonomous county to the west, mountains to the north, and a half-moon-shaped bay to the south. The village was founded in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and it currently has a population of 1,967, of which 96 percent are members of the Li ethnic group. In March 2017, China established a national surfing team, and most of the team members were from Wanning. After the national surfing team's training base settled in Wanning, the local surfing market flourished, changing the lives of villagers dramatically.

Forest Inn at Wanning Riyuewan Surfing Beach on Riyuebay/Riyuewan Surf Beach: is a local 3 star hotel

"Xiaozhou village" is likely one of those on the below map.