City dwellers tell the story of their hometowns in documentary

A documentary that aims to uncover the wonders of six cities by telling the compelling stories of their inhabitants has been aired on the video-streaming platform Youku.

Marvelous City has achieved a not inconsiderable score of 8.7 out of 10 on review site Douban.

The six cities are Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou province, Southwest China's Chongqing, Xiamen in Southeast China's Fujian province, Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, Karamay in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province.

The people documented in the film include an oil worker in Karamay who also is a band leader trying to integrate elements from traditional ethnic music into modern electronic and rock genres, a standup comedian who tries to find inspiration for his scripts at the Shaanxi History Museum, a foreign bar owner with a Chinese wife in Xiamen, and a 60-year-old Qingdao native who is fond of winter swimming and collecting antiques.

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, said Xiao Han, the documentary's director.