Uppsala County, Sweden
Short answer: partly. The hotel at the centre of Dragon Gate, the half-built Chinese cultural complex on the E4 between Uppsala and Gävle, has never opened to a single guest since the project started in 2004. But the outdoor grounds are not sealed off — there's a gelato and pizza counter, a candy shop, a 24-hour petrol station, and the statues and terracotta soldiers that made the place a roadside oddity in the first place are still standing.
Dragon Gate is one of those places that shows up in searches with wildly different answers depending on when the source was written, because its status keeps half-changing: a new owner here, a construction permit there, then years of nothing. This guide sorts out what's verifiably true as of 2026, using Wikipedia's documented timeline, the site's own current visitor information, and two visits Shahzad Ansari made to the site, eight years apart.
What Dragon Gate actually is, and why it looks unfinished
The site started as a much smaller, much less strange building: Hotel Älvkarlen, built in 1986 by a company owned by Älvkarleby municipality. It went bankrupt within two years, spent time as a refugee centre, and was sold in 1992 and renamed Checkpoint Dalälven. None of that explains the terracotta army.
That part starts in 2004, when Li Jingchun, a Chinese businessman who'd made his money selling mosquito repellent, bought the property and renamed it Dragon Gate, with the stated goal of creating a meeting point between Chinese and Swedish culture. A statue of the Buddhist saint Guanyin went up in 2005. A Chinese square followed in 2007. In 2008 the museum opened to the public, built around roughly 200 full-size replica terracotta soldiers made in collaboration with a museum in Xi'an, plus what's described as the world's longest wooden relief, running 150 metres.
The construction history is rougher than the finished attractions suggest. In 2006, the trade union magazine Byggnadsarbetaren named Dragon Gate the worst construction of the year. Sweden's Work Environment Authority later fined the contractor, Latep AB, 1.1 million kronor over labour violations, and parts of the complex turned out to have been built without planning permission. Li Jingchun and his business partner split in 2009, the operating companies went bankrupt, and ownership changed hands more than once over the following decade — the hotel got municipal approval to open in 2016 and still hadn't by 2019. A real estate company called Sisyfos bought the site in 2018 and is the current owner working toward finishing it.
The original plan, according to Wikipedia's account, also called for a Shaolin monastery with its own kung fu school. That part never happened. What's actually on the ground is the statue, the terracotta soldiers, the wooden relief, and a large, mostly empty Chinese-style building that was supposed to be a hotel and still isn't.
What a TravelFeed visitor found, eight years apart
Shahzad Ansari first stumbled on Dragon Gate in the summer of 2014, driving home to Stockholm from a holiday in Dalarna along the E4. He'd passed the same stretch of road for years without noticing it; this time a giant statue near Älvkarleby caught his eye, and he took the Gävle exit to investigate. What he found was a fortress-like gate with no ticket counter and nobody there to greet visitors — he walked straight in. Inside, the Guanyin statue anchored the space, flanked by rooms he couldn't immediately identify a purpose for.
He went back in September 2022 with his family, and the site hadn't moved on much: the hotel building was still closed, still no staff at the entrance, still that odd combination of a genuinely impressive statue and a building that looks like construction stopped mid-sentence. His account describes the atmosphere as eerie precisely because it's free to wander through — nothing about it feels staffed or curated, which is unusual for a site with a museum's worth of terracotta soldiers on display.
Is Dragon Gate open in 2026?
Yes, in the limited sense that matters for a passing visitor. The outdoor commercial area is active: Joey's Gelato & Pizza and a candy shop called Godisdraken both run daily from 11:00 to 19:00, public toilets are open the same hours, and the Preem petrol station on site operates 24/7. None of that requires a ticket. The site's own current information states the team is "working hard to get the hotel up and running, with the goal of opening by the end of 2026," and that a new heating system for the site has been completed with permits in place — but as of Wikipedia's most recent update, the hotel itself had still not opened. Treat "end of 2026" as a target the operators have stated, not a confirmed date.
What that means practically: you can stop, see the statue, the gate structure, and the terracotta soldiers, get gelato, and fill up on petrol. What you can't do is book a room or expect a staffed ticket desk at the museum entrance — both visits documented above found none, years apart, and nothing in the current visitor information suggests that's changed.
Getting there
Dragon Gate sits directly on the E4, Sweden's main north–south highway, in Älvkarleby Municipality — the address is Dragon Gate 20, 814 95 Älvkarleby, roughly 90 kilometres (about an hour's drive) north of Uppsala and just south of Gävle. Coming from either direction, it's a signed exit off the E4 rather than a detour into town, which is part of why so many visitors describe finding it by accident on a longer drive north. For more on the wider region, see TravelFeed's Sweden destination page.
Other Uppsala County oddities the same TravelFeed author has tracked down
Dragon Gate isn't the only offbeat stop @shahzad-ansari has documented in this part of Sweden, though the others are genuine detours rather than things you'll pass on the E4.
Near Enköping, southwest of Uppsala, he tracked down a small abandoned mine called Grottan Vid Husberg — six metres long, one metre wide, narrowing sharply after the first three metres — that wasn't even marked on Google Maps until he added it himself. He didn't get far inside: the entrance was thick with spiders and egg clusters, and reaching the narrower back section would have meant crawling in.
South of Uppsala, near Sigtuna, Skokloster Castle is a much bigger detour in the opposite direction from Dragon Gate, but worth knowing about if you're spending more than a day in the region. His account of shooting a pre-wedding video there doubles as a warning: a drone operator forgot the drone itself, requiring an expensive taxi delivery, and on a second visit the car ran out of fuel with only diesel and E85 ethanol blend available at the on-site pump — no standard petrol. The lesson he draws directly applies to any remote-area day trip in Sweden: check the car and pack everything before you leave, because the fix-it options once you're there are limited.
Where to eat if you're driving up from Uppsala
If your route to Dragon Gate runs through Uppsala, the same author has reviewed Koh Phangan, a Thai restaurant on the bank of the Fyris river in central Uppsala. His notes: book ahead for the restaurant's tuk-tuk-style seating or a river-view corner table if you want them, but the restaurant is large enough that walk-ins usually get seated anyway. He rated the pad thai and the children's kao pat gai highly and was less impressed by the vegetarian spring rolls, which he found oily. Getting to Uppsala itself from Stockholm is straightforward — trains from Stockholm Central take 36 to 40 minutes, with advance tickets starting around $8.
FAQ
Is Dragon Gate in Sweden still open?
Partly. The outdoor grounds, including the statue, the terracotta soldiers, a gelato and pizza counter, a candy shop, and a 24-hour petrol station, are open daily. The hotel building at the centre of the site has never opened since the project began in 2004; current site information targets an opening by the end of 2026, but that date isn't confirmed, and earlier target dates for the hotel have slipped before.
What can you see at Dragon Gate today?
The Guanyin statue, roughly 200 full-size replica terracotta soldiers made with a Xi'an museum, and a 150-metre wooden relief described as the world's longest. Two TravelFeed visits, in 2014 and 2022, both found the site accessible with no ticket counter and no staff present.
Why was Dragon Gate never finished?
A mix of financial and regulatory trouble. The contractor was fined for labour violations, parts of the complex were built without planning permission, the original owner and his business partner split and their companies went bankrupt in 2009, and ownership changed hands multiple times afterward. The current owner, a real estate company called Sisyfos, took over in 2018 and is the one working toward a 2026 hotel opening.
How do you get to Dragon Gate from Uppsala?
It's a straightforward drive north on the E4, roughly 90 kilometres, about an hour, with a signed exit at the site — no detour off the highway required. From Stockholm, it's the same E4 route continued further north past Uppsala.
