Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, who is on his first visit to China to attend the ongoing Beijing International Film Festival, thinks cinema brings people together.

In an interview with China Daily at a downtown hotel on Friday, Khan, 53, said he was pleasantly surprised by the warmth he has received in the country.

"From the outside you always have an impression about a place or space that you haven't been to, that this is how it will be, in spite of hearing that our films are being liked," he said, "it's quite a revelation that people are so warm."

He said he noticed some young Chinese people at a coffee shop during a stopover while being driven around the city, and "they felt like youngsters back home (in India)".