Canadian Youtuber brings Chongqing to the world

Photo taken on Sept. 30, 2021 shows the night view of southwest China's Chongqing. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

CHONGQING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Walking on the streets of southwest China's metropolis of Chongqing, Alex White, a Canadian Youtuber, came upon one nice surprise after another.

Alex White himself used to have some preconceptions before he visited the city. In 2019, he and his wife decided to spend their Christmas holiday in a Chinese city with about the same size population as his home country Canada, when Chongqing jumped out.

When he researched Chongqing on the Internet, he found few relevant results, and one picture even indicated that Chongqing was a highly polluted city.

However, when they were actually there, the inland municipality gave the couple a far better impression.

"Chongqing has a wonderful infrastructure, even better than that of New York or any city I have ever been. The monorails crossing the buildings are amazingly designed, not to mention around 14,000 bridges it has," said White.

Delighted with the creative urban planning of Chongqing with about 30 million people, he made up his mind to pay another visit to the city later. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, stood in the young man's way.

Since being in China in person became almost an impossible dream temporarily, White helped build a personnel network composed of Chinese and foreign Youtubers, hoping to facilitate exchanges on aerial shots and other images of Chongqing.

Using materials shared via the network, Alex White updates one video every week on the platform, covering directions to Chongqing's characteristic bridges and skyscrapers.

The works of the Canadian Youtuber with over 90,000 followers of his channel, named Reporterfy Media, have changed many people's impressions of the city and the country.

"Many didn't know Chongqing well until they saw my video. And they grow a love for this city and change their former views about China," he said. "This is what I want to do, leaving legacy videos which are timeless, educational, and will not lose its glory in the future."

Besides, White introduced a group of foreign vloggers to iChongqing, a local English news outlet in Chongqing, helping showcase the city's latest technology development and booming tourism.

As the pandemic eased, he finally got the chance to visit Chongqing in September. The minute he stepped off the plane, he couldn't wait to begin his video shooting.

"I don't want to miss a single bit of my quarantine process, and I want to show the world this. I think China did a smart job," he said. "When the plane landed, the quarantine work began and left no room for potential risk. The technology also helps a lot, like the contact tracking, a health QR code, and the test result shown on WeChat."

Every foreign vlogger in China has a city as their muse, which inspires video production and creation, according to Alex White.

"Chongqing is my city," said the Canadian Youtuber, "And I want the world to see its beauty."