TV series highlights ties with Russia

The Chinese embassy in Russia held a premiere on Tuesday for a documentary series entitled This Is China, which was jointly filmed by China and Russia.

The series focuses on showing China's wisdom and creativity, and it reflects the developing trends of the country. Meanwhile, it demonstrates the beauty of Peking Opera, Chinese kung fu and traditional sculpture, which are popular among Russian audiences.

The 2016-2017 Sino-Russian Media Exchange Year is a proposal by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for media from both countries to deepen cooperation, enhance bilateral cultural exchanges, according to Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui.

Li said the documentary is seen as one of the most important cooperation projects under the media exchange framework.

Visiting eight provinces in China, the crew completed the six episodes of the first season, including themes such as Shaolin kung fu, pandas and opera, with the documentary being produced in Mandarin, Russian and English.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sino-Russian relations have reached their highest level to date due to mutual trust and understanding.

"The documentary is an example of media cooperation and will help Russian people to get to know China better," Zakharova said.

The first season of This Is China will be broadcast on Russian television channel RT. According to the producer of the documentary, the plan is to complete the next two seasons in the coming two years.

"Cooperation between Chinese and Russian media has already been seen. For example, the third season of the documentary Hello China was broadcast in Russia and viewed by Russian audiences more than 230 million times," Li said. "We are looking forward to receiving positive feedback for This Is China."

"This Is China can be seen as the implementation of the proposal by the two leaders and a product of the framework," said Tian Zheyi, a senior official from the State Council Information Office of China.