It is very rare to see a TV series focusing on modern history, especially the War for Liberation in the late 1940s, gain a 9.1 on media review site douban.com, but TV drama All Quiet in Peking, which started on October 6, has managed to pull it off.

Differing from some over-the-top war dramas that have aired in China in recent years, All Quiet in Peking has been widely praised for its interesting stories and accuracy when it comes to historical details. Although not extremely popular when it first started, the drama has become a huge success among audiences in China who have completed higher education.

The cast includes a number of best actor winners, such as Golden Horse Award and Golden Rooster Award winner Liu Ye (starring as Fang Meng'ao), Feitian Award winner Chen Baoguo (starring as Xu Tieying) and 2014's Silver Bear winner Liao Fan.

The sensitive nature of the time period in which the story unfolds made production of the show extremely difficult. Over the past seven years seven production companies have signed on to produce the show only to back out, while several high-profile directors who were invited to lead the project ended up walking away.

The show's scriptwriter and producer, Liu Heping, has been seen as the cornerstone to the show's success. Shi Hang, the scriptwriter involved in the first season of the historical drama The Bronze Teeth, praised Liu for his artful adaptation of historical material.

"A drama with such a complicated structure requires extreme attention to detail, not just when it comes to policies and history, but also when it comes to capturing the personalities of all these characters. Liu has proved himself up the task, maintaining a certain amount of creative freedom while basing everything on historical fact. This is something that is very difficult for a screenwriter," Shi said.