Hengdian World Studios, also known as China's Hollywood, aims to build China's "Las Vegas", said a media executive from the Hengdian Group, the studio's operator, on Wednesday.

"We have been testing the waters over the past 15 years. The decision of the Central Committee of the CPC to deepen cultural reforms have consolidated our confidence and activated our passion in the cause," said Zeng Yulin, editor-in-chief of a magazine affiliated to the group.

"We are planning to build Hengdian into a Chinese version of Las Vegas, which is well-known all over the world for its gambling and leisure industry. We will attract tourists through show biz and provide them with other leisure services," he added.

On the basis of filming and tourism, Hengdian will develop into a high-end leisure destination. A plan shows that the group will invest 3 billion yuan ($220 million）in the construction of shooting bases and a tourism theme park, Oriental Morning Post reported.

The studios received 8.4 million tourists from home and abroad in 2010 and the figure is set to top 10 million in 2011, Zeng said. The revenue has also jumped from 500 million yuan in 2010 to an expected 800 million yuan in 2011.

Since the first film The Opium War was shot in 1996, the town has witnessed 900 films and TV series being shot here, including Hero, The Forbidden Kingdom and The Mummy Ⅲ.

The studios have attracted film companies from more than 20 foreign countries, including the United States, Austria, Germany and the Republic of Korea.

Hengdian, which used to be a small and poor village in Dongyang city in East China's Zhejiang province, has become the largest film base in Asia after a dozen years of development. Now it consists of 28 location bases, including scenes from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) to a modern Hong Kong street.

"We never think we've achieved success; rather, we are on the way to success," said Zeng.