Producer Will Smith said Jackie Chan was held in such high regard in China that he was able to use his status to help with many aspects of the production, such as getting permission to shoot in certain locations for filming.
As noted on a featurette, Jackie Chan was the one who came up with the "jacket" routine as a means of teaching Dre Parker kung fu moves.
The first movie to shoot in The Forbidden City since Bernardo Bertolucci's Der letzte Kaiser (1987).
When Dre first meets Mr. Han, he sits with a bowl of noodles. He seems irritated by a fly buzzing around him, and for a brief moment, it appears he might attempt to catch it with his chopsticks. This moment clearly references the original movie, where Mr. Miyagi practices catching a fly in the same way.
For The Great Wall sequences, all of the camera equipment had to be hand-carried, as helicopters were not allowed. The helicopter shots were finally achieved before sunset. The wait was due to military exercises in the area.