Hollywood has welcomed a new neighbor from China with open arms - Wanda Group, China's largest commercial property developer and owner of the AMC theater chain. Wanda recently announced it would take over a plot at 9900 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and invest $1.2 billion in advancing its presence in Tinseltown.

"We are honored that such a successful Chinese business group has made an investment in our community," said Julie Wagner, CEO of the Beverly Hills Conference and Visitors Bureau. "This is just another demonstration of the wonderful relationship between our community and the people and businesses of China. We look forward to the evolution of the project and know that it will have a great impact on our city from both an economic and a cultural perspective."

"The Los Angeles project is expected to aid in China's entry into Hollywood's film industry and generally promote Chinese culture abroad," Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, said in a statement on Aug 8. "The Los Angeles office will be able to leverage Hollywood's solid film industry resources to support the group's Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis and Qingdao International Film Festival projects in China."

A view of 9900 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.[Photo by Huang Xilin/chinadaily.com.cn]

For Beverly Hills, Wanda is not the first Chinese film and media company poised to invest here. In June, following the first ever Huading Awards presentation in Hollywood, Global Talents Media Group announced that it would establish an office in Beverly Hills this fall and make the Huading Awards an annual event in Los Angeles.

To many Hollywood filmmakers, China, the second-largest market for movies, presents a big opportunity to make money outside of the US. Now, thanks to Wanda, that opportunity is just around the corner.

"I think it is a good thing," said Robert Lundberg, senior vice-president of China Lion Film Distribution, one of the biggest global distributors of Chinese films to North American markets.

"There is eagerness for investors in films," Lundberg said. "Being a film-lover myself, anytime you see people are interested in films and interested in investing films, you are going to see that this market is so vast. This is just so exciting."