Documenting China: Foreign production team films China's development
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As the eyes of the world turned to Beijing for the 19th CPC National Congress, several production teams were wrapping up insightful documentaries on China's transformation over the past five years. Here's more.
 
Poverty alleviation, the rapid growth of e-commerce, and high-speed rail. Those are just some of the tremendous changes in China that foreign production teams want to capture.
 
Rob Slater, producer of the documentary series "China: Time of Xi", shares his impression of the ever-changing country
 
ROB SLATER HEAD OF PRODUCTION, MERIDIAN LINE FILMS I think the team were quite amazed that the sort of innovation were taking place in really remote and rural areas, so there was this e-commerce story taking place in a village next to a tea plantation. There is a drone story operating by X-aircraft in Ningxia. So these sort of things, along with the big infrastructure project like the high speed train and new roads and new schools, all of those things, you know impressive to everybody whether you've been there before or not.
 
How has China managed to do that? What is the philosophy behind President Xi Jinping's government? Slater's documentary series ''China: Time of Xi'' seeks the answers. The three-episode documentary series showcases historic events that have taken place under Xi's leadership, and sheds light on the country's dynamic landscape Each episode investigates the pillars of Xi's political ideologies and economic strategies.
 
ROB SLATER HEAD OF PRODUCTION, MERIDIAN LINE FILMS Discovery Asia has decided earlier in the year that they wanted a high-profile series to coincide with the 19th National Congress, in order to allow their audience to learn more about President Xi, his policies and his strategies.
 
Apart from "China: Time of Xi" Slater's team has also documented other China-themed stories such as China Icon, and the Secret of China Stories about China's development are extremely popular with global audiences
 
MAYYI LEE, VICE PRESIDENT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC REGIONAL PRODUCTION AND STORY DEVELOPMENT To give you an example, China from Above which was a co-production by NHNZ, Beach House Pictures, CiCC National Geographic Channels International and NDR - it went viral and with 130 million views on 10cent in the first two weeks of its release. Now that's amazing for us especially on a digital scale.
 
The rush to document China is not only driven by market forces but also propelled by China's openning up and reforms policies.
 
MAYYI LEE, VICE PRESIDENT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC REGIONAL PRODUCTION AND STORY DEVELOPMENT Its not so much International media houses pouring resources into China stories, its more an opening up of China and I've seen an opening of up of the China documentary industry and market.
 
As Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the CPC, said in a work report delivered during the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China should secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.
 
A more confident China will definitely attract more attention around the globe.