Crowd of Chinese fans welcome Kim Soo-hyun

By Park Si-soo

Actor Kim Soo-hyun from “My Love From the Star” smiles during a meeting with fans in Shanghai held on Sunday. / Korea Times

Thousands of people flocked to a giant auditorium in Shanghai, Sunday, to see actor Kim Soo-hyun, the star from “My Love from the Star,” promote the hit TV series.

Shanghai-Pudong International Airport was crowded with hundreds of fans welcoming Kim’s arrival. Kim is now on a tour of nine cities in seven countries to meet his fans, having started out in Seoul, March 16.

Two days earlier, actress Jun Ji-hyun, Kim’s lover in the drama, had a fan meeting at a five-star hotel in the same city. The venue was reportedly packed with fans waiting six hours prior to the event.

Nearly 300 Chinese police officers and 50 private security personnel were dispatched to the venue to maintain security.

Metal detectors were installed at all the hotel’s entrances to make sure that nothing went wrong during the media-hyped event.

Nearly 100 reporters from 60 media outlets also took part in the event, reflecting the drama’s popularity in China.

“The security (for the fan meeting) was so tight. It felt like a high-security event attended by state leaders,” Sports Dong-A, a Korean newspaper specializing in sports and entertainment news, quoted a security official as saying in a report.

The Kim-Jun duo will continue to hold fan meetings in other Chinese cities including Beijing, as well as in Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.

But before that, Kim will first head to Thailand, March 30.

Meanwhile, SBS, Korea’s third biggest broadcaster that produced the 21-episode drama, said it has sold the program to 15 countries, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Israel, Belgium, Myanmar, Cambodia and Japan. The firm said Mongolia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia are also showing interest.