Adventurous British TV presenter found himself before his travels began

"Nothing of comparable scale has happened on this planet or to our species," says Simon Reeve when commenting on the dramatic change in China in recent years.

Reeve, a popular BBC documentary presenter who has traveled to more than 130 countries and who is currently on a theater tour called An Audience with Simon Reeve, said his journey in China, along the Yangtze River in 2014 during which he explored religious faith in China as part of the Sacred Rivers series, was filled with surprises.

He said his experience showed him that real Chinese people are not at all like the stereotypes in Western media that show them focusing on production lines and industry output.

"I remember I met so many people in China who were big personalities and characters, and they were so much more than just units of production," Reeve said. "They are generally as eccentric as the British or the Russians, very funny and outspoken as well. I think that's a surprise for a lot of people who go to China."

He compared his understanding of China to looking at a beautiful picture.

"Initially, you just see a tiny section of the picture, the more you travel, the more you talk to people, the more questions you ask, the more food you eat and the more stories you read, you start to see more of the picture emerge and that's how it feels to me," he said.

The main thing he noticed in China was that "a country that large is much more interesting, complicated, and beautiful in every sense than people outside think". He said "people have said to me since, 'Oh you must have been followed everywhere, and you must have been stopped from filming endlessly' but we had nothing like that."

Despite being one of the most popular presenters on British television, Reeve's early life was not without trouble. At the age of 17, he left school with no qualifications but with a drinking problem, and, for several years, he admits to being confused and lost, without any direction or inspiration in life.

He said he suffered from depression in his early teens and even came close to suicide.

"I found myself on the edge of a bridge, the darkest moment, in many ways, of my life. I didn't consciously choose to survive. It was just a bit of luck. It wasn't a deliberate decision not to die. But I stepped back, went home, and carried on."

Following that fateful night, Reeve decided to take a trip to the "Lost Valley" and hiked up a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. With each step, he found the desire to keep going grew and he realized that the best way to address mental health issues was to find meaning in life.

"For me, the depression and the darkness came from the lack of purpose. I think it's a big problem in wealthy countries where our sense of identity has been eroded," Reeve said. "Luckily for me, I have had it ever since. From soon after that moment, I started to find a path in life and started working. Work gave me a purpose, a meaning and satisfaction."

After a period of unemployment, he ran charity shops, worked in a supermarket, and eventually found a job as a post-boy at a British newspaper. He quickly graduated to research and writing, and then spent years working on investigations into international terrorism. His 1998 investigative book The New Jackals was one of the first in the world about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

Then, following the terrorist attacks against the United States on Sept 11, 2001, Reeve, as an authority on the subject, was in demand as a TV commentator, something that led to discussions with production companies about the prospect of him making documentaries.

After more than a decade spent making such programs, he has featured in more than 100 shows, has journeyed across epic landscapes, dodged bullets on frontlines, and walked through minefields. He is now seen by many as British television's most adventurous traveler, with his programs regularly getting more than 5 million viewers.

The 47-year-old says the key qualities needed to become a good presenter are empathy and sympathy while remaining true to oneself.

"I think making the programs over the length of time I do, I could try to keep up a professional appearance over that time, but you have to become yourself, otherwise you are going mad," he said.

In the current series of The Americas with Simon Reeve, which is broadcast by the BBC, he is traveling the length of the Americas, through the two continents that together make up a quarter of the Earth's land space, down through North America, from the icy wilderness of Alaska to the tropical heat of Costa Rica.