Nestled in the mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Zheng'an County has become the world's guitar capital – producing one out of every seven guitars around the globe. Amid the hum of factories and the rhythm of craftsmanship, a 25-year-old South Korean named Kim Jung-hun has found his place. As a sales manager for a South Korean guitar accessories company, Kim is embracing new opportunities in this guitar town.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Dato' Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan, a veteran Malaysian diplomat who spent 12 years in China. From serving as Malaysian Ambassador to China (1998-2005) to his current role leading the Malaysia-China Friendship Association, Dato' Majid has dedicated decades to fostering mutual understanding and collaboration between the two nations.

Joshua Dominick, affectionately known as "Lao Tan" in Chinese, has spent more than two decades in Beijing. Originally from the U.S., Josh speaks fluent Chinese and has become a familiar face in the local community. In 2013, he founded Krankin' Thru China, an organization dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities to engage in outdoor sports across the country.

For Luo Dingjun, traveling between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland has become second nature. Born and raised in Taipei, the 37-year-old has built a life in Shenyang, a vibrant city in northeast China's Liaoning Province. As the founder of the WeChat Official Account "Cross-Strait Youths," Luo has spent over a decade fostering connections and understanding between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Known as the world's capital of small commodities, Yiwu in eastern China attracts hundreds of thousands of sellers and buyers from home and abroad every day. Harold Mori, a young Peruvian man, is one of them. In this podcast, Mori shares his story of how he started his trading business from scratch right here in Yiwu.

She came to China to study but ended up building a home, a thriving career and so much more. Meet Nguyen Thi Lan, a Vietnamese entrepreneur who has spent over a decade in Chongqing, southwest China. From navigating student life to launching two successful businesses, she has embraced the energy of this dynamic "Mountain City." Now, as the leader of the Vietnamese Association in Chongqing-Sichuan, she's helping fellow Vietnamese expats find their place in this vibrant community.

A healer by day, a warrior by night – can these two worlds coexist? For Shi Ming, they don't just coexist – they collide. The 30-year-old is both a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner and an MMA fighter. In November 2024, she stunned the world with a crushing head kick at the Road to UFC finals, sending the crowd into a frenzy. What drives her to both heal and conquer? How does she balance these two lives?

On the tranquil shores of Lugu Lake in southwestern China live the Mosuo people, an ethnic group known for their matrilineal traditions. Right by the lake, in a village called Daluoshui in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, stands a modest yet remarkable museum dedicated to preserving this vibrant culture. Founded by two locals in the late 1990s, the Mosuo Folk Museum struggled for years to survive until a young outsider arrived to make a difference…

Zafar Uddin Mahmood, former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and President of the Pakistan-based initiative Understanding China Forum, first came to China in the 1970s and spent decades here as a diplomat. Having personally witnessed China’s reform and opening-up from the late 1970s onward, he offers his perspective on why understanding China matters not only to Pakistan but also to the wider world.

​Li Qiuyi is a leading railway engineer whose innovative work has been instrumental in shaping China's world-class high-speed rail network. He has overcome great technical barriers, such as designing seamless points on bridges, enabling trains to maintain high speeds safely and smoothly. Today, Li continues to pioneer intelligent and sustainable rail technologies, driving China's rail industry into the future.

In this episode, researchers reveal the true colors of the Terracotta Warriors―the underground army of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang.

​Veteran electrician Zhang Dong has advanced power maintenance in China, developing live-line tools that prevent blackouts during repairs. His robotic innovations and training programs save hundreds of outage hours annually. Honored as a national model worker, he proves that electricity service can and should never stop.

​In this episode of "Friendship in War Fires", we honor Tang Duo, a Chinese aviation pioneer who fought in World War II as a Soviet attack pilot before shaping China’s Air Force education. His daring combat missions and postwar legacy reveal a life of service, heroism and resilience.

​In this episode of "Friendship in War Fires", we honor Grigori Kulishenko, a Soviet pilot who dedicated his life to defending China against Japanese aggression during World War II. His heroism has been deeply cherished by the Chinese people since the moment he made the ultimate sacrifice in a fierce battle against Japanese forces.

In this episode of "Friendship in War Fires" series, we uncover the extraordinary story of Qian Xiuling – a Chinese-Belgian scientist who saved nearly 100 lives in Nazi-occupied Belgium during World War II. Her actions created an astonishing bridge between wartime China and Europe, proving courage knows no borders.

Young Kazakhstani Ruslan Tulenov is the first non-Chinese Global Media Officer for Trade and Investment Promotion in China’s tropical island province of Hainan. He is affectionately known across China as the “Panda Man” or the “Panda Hero.” In this podcast, Ruslan takes us behind the scenes of how he became one of the most famous foreign faces in Hainan. How did he earn those endearing monikers and how has he been sharing the island’s story with the world?

In this episode of "Friendship in War Fires" series, we honor the extraordinary courage of Minnie Vautrin – an American educator who risked her life to protect over 10,000 women and children during one of history's darkest chapters in Nanjing. Her harrowing diary entries provide an unflinching record of the Nanjing Massacre – a testament to both the cruelty of war and the resilience of humanity.

For 14 grueling years (1931-1945), the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army stood as China's northernmost force of resistance against Japanese aggression. Deep in the forests of Jilin Province, their first guerrilla base was set up in a remote area called Hongshilazi. Spanning 32 square kilometers, this battlefield has become an active archaeological site, revealing more than 3,300 ruins and 900 artifacts. In this episode, we follow Meng Qingxu, the lead archaeologist behind the dig, as he reveals how the past is being pieced together.

More than 460 million metric tons of plastic are produced every year, and around 20 million tons end up polluting our environment. It’s in our oceans, our soil, even the air we breathe. But what if that waste could become more than just pollution? In Pakistan, Dr. Waqas Ahmed Khan is transforming discarded plastic into sustainable eco-bricks, and in the process, reshaping how communities think about waste.

This July, Thomas Rabe, Chairman of the John Rabe Communication Center, was granted the Friendship Envoy Award at the second Orchid Awards in Beijing for promoting cultural understanding and friendship between China and Germany. Eighty-eight years ago, his grandfather John Rabe, a German businessman stationed in Nanjing in 1937, managed to shelter and save 250,000 Chinese civilians from atrocities committed by Japanese invading forces during one of the darkest moments in human history, known as the Nanjing Massacre. In this podcast, Thomas Rabe shares with us the Rabe family’s special bonds with China which spans over a century and four generations.