Holiday with purpose

When 9-year-old Lyu Kaichen watched the TV show Wildest Vacation for the first time in the summer of 2017, he was immediately hooked.

The boy saw a scene featuring students wrapped in ancient armor to guard Jiayuguan, a pass at the western end of the Great Wall dating to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

"It was a breathtaking night with many stars clearly seen in the sky. The little 'soldiers' took patrols, blew their bugles and delivered messages. They seemed so cool. It was a very interesting program," recalls Kaichen, who's now 12 years old.

Kaichen has since become a diehard fan of Wildest Vacation, an outdoor reality show produced by the country's largest broadcaster, China Media Group, since 2014, which aims to raise children's interest in the country's landscapes and culture.

The show has aired on China Central Television's children channel, CCTV-12. Its latest season, which debuted in October, continues the previous format in which host Huang Wei, along with five students selected from thousands of candidates, travel around, "seeking happiness".

After preparing for two years by reading books and training his voice, Kaichen was chosen as one of the five children to travel across four provinces to see the unprecedented changes taking place in some rural areas that once experienced extreme poverty.

The shooting lasted for nearly 50 days, with one parent allowed to accompany each child during their spare time.

The other four children, ages 8 and 9, were from Beijing, Tianjin, Xi'an in Shaanxi province and Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province.

Kaichen, who is from Shenzhen, Guangdong province, was selected as the team leader, since he was the oldest among the children.

"Happiness is an abstract yet perceptual concept. We wish that all children can perceive happiness through journeys to meet people and hear their stories about leading happy lives," says Si Xiaofeng, chief director of Wildest Vacation.

While many middle-class families travel during holidays, Si says most rarely go to far-flung areas that have undergone huge transformations, thanks to the poverty-alleviation efforts.

"The show will help young audiences to see China as a vast and beautiful country," Si says, adding that one of its goals is to raise families' interest of domestic tourism.

The children's first stop was Chixi, a village at the foot of the Taimu Mountains in Fuding in East China's Fujian province.

With a series of poverty-alleviation policies, ranging from relocations to tourism development, the village inhabited by more than 1,800 families increased the average per capita income from 166 yuan ($25.4) in 1984 to nearly 22,700 yuan by 2019.

After viewing the village's history in a museum, Kaichen and the other kids visited a tea factory, founded by the village's first college graduate, who has returned to his hometown to help develop the local economy.

They also learned about white-peony tea, one of China's best-known brews, which has become a mainstream business in Fuding.

Then, the children traveled to Xiapu, a county in northeastern Fujian where more than 4,000 households overcame poverty in 2018. They sailed on two fishing boats in two teams. Kaichen says he struggled with seasickness but was excited to watch fish being caught in nets.

The children also rode a slow-speed train to the Daliang Mountains in Sichuan province, and visited a dairy farm that exemplifies Gansu province's industrialization and a school in Nyingchi city in the Tibet autonomous region.

The children asked so many questions at the farm that shooting lasted over 20 minutes, delaying the cows' regular routine.

"When the cow enclosure was opened, the cows didn't come out as slowly as usual but rather trotted to their feeding troughs. That moment reminded the children of their most joyous experience away from school," says Si.

In accordance with the Chinese saying, "it's better to travel 10,000 miles than to read 10,000 books", the journeys helped the children to become more independent, enhance their fitness and improve their problem-solving abilities.

"It's an unusual vacation," Si says.

"We hope these journeys become a lifelong treasure for these children. And we also hope that the young audiences who 'travel' with them through the show learn more about the country."