Telling China's story

Host and architect Danny Forster visits some of China's ambitious projects in the documentary How China Works, which will be aired as the first program of Discovery Channel's new anthology Hour China. (Photo/provided to China Daily)

Discovery Channel, known for its culturally diverse content, announced last week in Beijing the launch of Hour China, an documentary anthology about the Middle Kingdom.

The growing curiosity of global audiences about China has been motivating TV stations and content providers to create China-related materials with universal appeal.

Hour China will be a weekly program and begin on Saturday.

It is expected to reach 90 million viewers in 37 countries and regions. The program will also be available in Latin America, Europe and Africa by the end of May.

"We want these programs to have true market value. It's presented in a way that appeal to audiences worldwide and meanwhile is able to introduce to them the various aspects of China's development," says Fang Chang, general manger of Discovery China branch.

The first documentary, How China Works, will kick off on Saturday.

In the three-episode serial host and architect Danny Forster, who rose to fame through hosting Discovery's hit show Extreme Engineering, visits both ambitious projects and ordinary people's lives to gain insights into China's urbanization, technological innovations and people's aspirations and vision.

Highlighted stories include Foster's exploration of China's tallest tower and high-speed trains, his visit to a smartphone app company in Guangdong that's changing the way more than 400 million Chinese communicate and his participation in the cast of a Chinese TV series at Hengdian, famous for its outdoor film studios, to talk to young extras on the sets.

Short stories on where China is going are already found in print and on social media, but this is the first time they are being presented through a visually stimulating narrative, says Vikram Channa, vice-president of production, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific.

The biggest challenge the production team faced during filming was gaining access to areas that aren't often open to foreigners, such as the world's largest radio telescope located in Pingtang county, Guizhou province.