For nine months between 2016 and 2017, Forster led a production team of six and traveled to more than 10 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Harbin and Tianjin, to shoot the second season of How China Works. The series' first season debuted in 2015.
Sometimes their journey turned rather adventurous.
In an episode of the new season centering on infrastructure, while his crew were filming the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the world's longest sea-crossing that opened for public use in October 2018, Forster entered an elevator to climb to the top of the bridge, which is some 200 meters above the sea. At the time, the bridge was still under construction.
In the same episode of the series, he entered a laboratory to observe a frozen sample of the Ebola virus.
The series also has interesting moments featuring Forster's efforts to understand local hobbies and trendy lifestyles.
In 1995, only 0.005 percent of the Chinese population was connected to the internet, but now the country leads the world with more than 730 million web users, with more than 95 percent using their phones to get online, according to the documentary. Online literature is one of the fastest-growing industries, thanks to the country's digital transformation.
Revealing more about the production process, Zhang Bo, a producer of the second season, says people who are likely to "rewrite the game rules in their respective industries in the next three to five years" were picked as interviewees for the program. Since How China Works started, the production team has also witnessed many changes.
"When we worked on the first season, we spent a lot of time persuading foreign partners," says Kong.
But as China emerges as a tech powerhouse, the country is now earning more recognition in the West, making the international coproduction easier to develop, she adds.
