Maps of Movies

Wolf Totem (2015)

Where Wolf Totem says it takes place, and where it was really shot.

A film about wolves on the steppe, shot mostly near Wulagai in Inner Mongolia, but no source says which scene was shot where

Scenes and places

Leaving Beijing for the steppe

Chen Zhen and Yang Ke, two Beijing students, leave the city for a posting among Inner Mongolian herders. Chen Zhen sees it as an escape from hard city life, and a first sight of the Great Wall from the road marks the start of the journey.

Set in Beijing — Chen Zhen and Yang Ke leave Beijing for Inner Mongolia, a student volunteer posting.

China's capital, from which the film's two students are sent out to the grassland.

Filmed at Beijing — The English Wikipedia says some footage was filmed in Beijing; which scene is not stated.

How to get there:

Arrival at the herders' yurts

The students arrive and are received by the brigade leader Bilig, with the new production head telling him they will teach the children Mandarin for two years. Chen Zhen is shown a yurt of his own, and gets a first warning about mosquitoes and wolves.

Set in Herders' brigade camp near Wulagai — The Mongol brigade's yurt camp where the two students are assigned a home and put to teach the children.

A Mongol herding camp on the Inner Mongolian steppe, where life follows the seasons and the wolves.

Filmed at Wulagai area, Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia — A single travel diary names a 'Wolf Totem filming base, Bingtuan town' in the Xilin Gol area; the exact scene site is not given.

How to get there:

Surrounded by wolves on the way home

Riding home alone, Chen Zhen finds his horse ringed by wolves and survives by banging his stirrups, as Bilig once told him. The scare turns into fascination, and he says he wants to capture a cub in spring to study it.

Set in Open steppe near the camp — Chen Zhen's horse is surrounded by a pack of wolves while he is riding alone on the grassland.

The film puts this on the open grassland; no named place is given.

The wolves' snow fridge

Bilig takes Chen Zhen to a snowdrift where wolves have buried frozen gazelles for the spring. They pull out the dead animals, and Bilig explains why the herders let a living one go and leave the wolves their share.

Set in Frozen lake and snowdrift — After a wolf hunt, Bilig leads Chen Zhen to a snowdrift where the wolves have stored their kill.

A frozen lake and snow-filled hollow on the steppe, used as the wolves' winter meat store.

Into the wolf den

Told by an official to clear out the wolf dens, the herders search the steppe. Chen Zhen insists on crawling into the den while the she-wolf is away and comes out with cubs, then spends a night trying to keep one alive.

Set in Wolf den on the grassland — Herders hunting by an official order find a den, and Chen Zhen crawls in to take the cubs.

A burrow in the grassland, one of several dens the herders check each spring.

The blizzard and the army horses

The white-hair blizzard strikes while the brigade guards the army's horses. Shartseren and Batu try to steady the herd as wolves drive it toward the frozen lake.

Set in Army horse pasture by the lake — The herders guard the army's horses in a white-hair blizzard while wolves close in.

A night pasture on the steppe that was filmed over several weeks in the cold.

The summer camp lake

Chen Zhen leads Bilig up a rise and points to the border and the last untouched lake on the Chinese grassland. He promises to free the cub there once it has grown stronger.

Set in Summer camp by the lake — Chen Zhen shows Bilig a lake near the border where he wants to move the camp and release the cub.

A lake on the northern grassland near the border, away from the plowed land.

Characters

• Chen Zhen — A Beijing student sent to Inner Mongolia to teach shepherds, who becomes fascinated by the wolves.
• Yang Ke — Chen Zhen's fellow student, posted to the same herders' brigade.
• Bilig — The Mongol brigade leader who teaches Chen Zhen how the herders live with wolves.