Life at the heart of a city

The documentary, which has achieved a score of 8.7 out of 10 on the review site Douban, has been aired on the streaming platform Youku.

It also follows the journeys of singer Zhou Shen, pop idol Xiao Zhan, actors Wu Lei, Bai Yu and Xu Weizhou as well as actress Wang Xiaochen-most of whom were born and grew up in the aforementioned six cities.

Each city has large groups of people who have chosen to migrate to, leave or stay there. The celebrities represent the group of people who grew up in the city, but later chose to leave to pursue their dreams, says Xiao Han.

He adds that he hopes the inclusion of the celebrities will attract their large fan bases, mostly consisting of young people, to watch and enjoy the series, becoming a fan of the documentary genre and factual filmmaking.

Before the filming, Xiao Han asked the celebrities what they normally eat, where they often go and who they meet when they return to their respective hometowns.

"We tried to remove the fame aspect when documenting them exploring the cities. I wanted them to feel free to show their true selves in the documentary," says the director.

In the episode filmed in Qingdao, actress Wang and her childhood friends spent their day going beachcombing, carefully selecting fresh seafood in a local market and retracing their steps toward the children's palace, a learning center for arts and crafts, where they attended dance classes together.

During dinner, they competed with each other to see who could shell a shrimp the fastest, a game that seems a bit silly, but as coastal city inhabitants, they loved it.

As the shade of evening fell upon the group, they came across a vendor from whom they bought bowls of wonton to eat. Sitting at a rough table at the roadside, Wang had a heart-to-heart talk with her best friend.

"We met each other at the children's palace at age 4, but we are now living very different lives to each other," she says to the friend in the documentary.

She envies the normal, happy life of her friend, while her friend admires the glamour and star status Wang embraces as a renowned actress.

Nevertheless, when they were asked, given a chance to travel back in time, whether they would change their life choices or not. Both of them reply with a resounding "no".

"We often admire the lives led by other people. Now I realize that we should have the courage to face up to the inadequacies of the past," Wang says.