Stars are viewers' guide to worldwide adventure
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E-mail China Daily, November 6, 2019
To help young viewers slake their thirst for globe-trotting adventure without having to leave the comfort of their own homes, Encounter, a documentary-style reality show on Tencent's streaming media platform, packs popular celebrities off to experience extraordinary locales and challenging activities.
Celebrity guests spend week-long trips outside their comfort zones and undertake bucket-list busting escapades, such as chasing tornadoes in the United States, assisting anti-poaching efforts at an elephant orphanage in Zambia and climbing to the peak of Puncak Jaya in Indonesia.
The show, which forgoes flamboyant editing and overbearing effects, garnered an overwhelming thumbs-up from its viewers, who are eager to better see the world. It gained 9 points out of a total 10 on review website Douban.
To the delight of its fan base, the first episode of the second season premiered on Oct 22 and will be followed by a new episode each week.
Compared to the first season, the second introduces a greater diversity among the guest travelers. In the first season, celebrity guests were drawn from "artsy youth" circles like ballad vocalist Pu Shu and jazz singer Mavis Fan.
The second season reveals a stronger sense of "inclusiveness", according to Aya Liu, simply known as Aya, a singer from Taiwan who also hosts the show as the "resident" traveler that accompanies each star guest.
"If we only open our door to a certain type of traveler, it's not open-minded," she said at a pre-screening of the show in Beijing. "As long as the guests are curious to explore the world, they are welcomed.
"Due to their well-groomed image, people, including me, often have preconceived ideas about their life and their personalities, but the truth is that they are not always as you imagine them," she adds.
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