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A rare sight on Hong Kong television networks, a Hong Kong produced documentary series about poverty alleviation in the Chinese mainland has won high praise from viewers in both Hong Kong and the mainland. 

The six-episode documentary No Poverty Land, which focuses on poverty alleviation efforts in six provinces that were once among China's most impoverished regions, has been airing on Television Broadcast (TVB) in Hong Kong since August 21. 

The show has been warmly welcomed by audiences, earning a 9.5/10 score on Chinese media review platform Douban.

According to TVB, the production team visited previously poor provinces in the mainland to document their stories, looking into the various adaptive poverty alleviation efforts spearheaded by the central and local governments.

The results were "beyond our expectations," Wong Suk-ming, producer/TVB news manager told Hong Kong news outlet Wenweipo when speaking about the stories depicted on the program.

"There are people out there who'd always like to question the achievements of the mainland and mistrust them... We've seen the changes, and we felt it necessary to do a program like this," said Wong, noting that the inspiration for the show came from trips to  Northwest China' s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Southwest China' s Guizhou Province two years ago.

"We are not doing it at the request of anyone as the rumors say."

Wong chose Hong Kong TV hostess Janis Chan to host the show as he felt that it was important that these stories should be seen from a "Hongkonger's perspective."

From Daliangshan village in Southwest China's Sichuan Province to South China's Hainan Province, it took the whole production team three months to finish shooting.

The show has been grabbing the attention of the audiences in both mainland and Hong Kong, who were touched to see the changes that have taken place in these areas over the years.

Global Times