Chongqing Launches The Great Way, a TV Expedition Tracing the New Silk Road to ASEAN

Chongqing - On Oct 9, Chongqing Broadcasting Group hoisted a departure flag inside its downtown headquarters, sending multiple reporting teams southward on a mission to document what may be China's most consequential trade route. The launch of The Great Way (Da Dao), a large-scale multinational TV program, marks the latest media effort to turn Chongqing's logistical muscle into narrative soft power.

The launch timing is deliberate. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the launch of the Action Plan for China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2026–2030). In November, Chongqing will host the 2026 China-ASEAN Week. Against that backdrop, the show positions Chongqing not merely as a viral "8D cyberpunk" city, but as the operational hub of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor — a rail-sea artery that now reaches 596 ports across 128 countries and regions. In the first half of 2026 alone, Chongqing moved more than 180,000 TEUs of cargo through the corridor, with a total value of 32.5 billion yuan ($4.85 billion).

Over roughly 20 days, crews from The First Sight TV will fan out across Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Rather than tracking container statistics, the show will train its lens on ordinary people — farmers, factory workers, port operators, and entrepreneurs — whose daily lives are braided together by the corridor's flow of goods and capital. Southeast Asian journalists will join segments of the journey, offering a "partner perspective" on the region's prosperity.

At the launch, a cup of Thai milk tea served as a quiet metaphor: the tea leaves, coconut milk, and tapioca pearls all sourced from ASEAN countries, now standard fare in Chongqing cafes. "This is the human texture of the corridor," organizers seemed to say without words.