One of The Mummy 3's shooting sets in China was in a desert in Hebei Province, China. The photos were also unveiled for the first time.

Hollywood blockbuster The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor recently began shooting in Shanghai, with 1,200 extras still to be hired for the film's first action sequence.

A journalist from the Shanghai-based News Times learned yesterday that the film team will spend 30 days shooting a battle scene in which the Emperor Qin Shi Huang played by Jet Li will drive his bronze chariot on a rampage down old Shanghai's Nanjing Road, while Michelle Yeoh and Hollywood star Brendan Fraser will fight with Jet Li under a fireworks-decorated sky. This will begin shooting in early November.

The opening of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor picks up at the end of The Mummy Returns. Rick O'Connell, played by Brendan Fraser, is bored with his plain life in Britain after he ended his adventure in Egypt in 1940s. He comes to know about the myth of China's Emperor Qin Shi Huang and is fascinated with it. With the help of his good friends, he comes to China and finds the tomb keepers of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum, Michelle Yeoh and Anthony Wong. Michelle Yeoh tells Brendan Fraser that there is a myth passed on from generation to generation that the Emperor Qin Shi Huang will return from the dead someday.

Persuaded by Brendan Fraser, Yeoh and Wong allow him into the emperor's mausoleum. Brendan Fraser takes the emperor's coffin to Shanghai hoping to transport it to Britain for research. Yeoh drops some magic water on the coffin out of curiosity, and the reanimated emperor revives his army for a new conquest. Brendan Fraser, Yeoh, and Wong know that they've made a big mistake, and decide to revive the people who died constructing the Great Wall to combat the emperor and his troops.

One of The Mummy 3's shooting sets in China was in a desert in Hebei Province, China. The photos were also unveiled for the first time.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua October 23, 2007)