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. The Early Spring quickly became one of the Chinese dramas everyone was talking about this year. But there was another detail that was easy to miss while following their story: the cities were almost characters in their own right.
The drama did not spend all its time inside sleek offices and polished workspaces. Once Shang Zhitao heads home, her world looks very different. These scenes offer a glimpse into the more regular side of Zhitao’s life away from work. 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. 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. the scenes were actually shot at the Junwang Mountain camping base in the Jinlong Mountain area Although the story places him in Switzerland. 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.
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.
The crew spent several days filming there, while the guesthouse upstairs was also transformed into the home of Zhitao’s parents, according to local reports.
