Screenshot from the promotional video.

The series is about a story of a family of four, also an epitome of how the vibrant city pursues an eco-friendly and quality lifestyle, said Chen Songzhu, one of the scriptwriters of This Is Dongguan. Improving the ecological environment, optimizing the economic structure and enhancing urban qualities are not ideas the film makes up, but are rooted in the city's actual practices.

The set was mostly based on the sites deemed ecological governance successes, such as Huayang Lake, Songshan Lake Eco-park, Tongsha Reservoir, and Binhai Bay New Area.

As the little girl at the end of the first episode pictures the future of Dongguan, the Binhaiwan Bay Area emerges not just as a cooperation platform with the Greater Bay Area characteristics defined by the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, but an example to maintain a balance between ecological governance and economic growth.

The estuary of Maozhou River where the New Area is located was strongly salinized tideland with severe coastal corrosion which rendered it completely barren, according to workers there. To accelerate the shaping of an enabling environment, further protect coastal zones, and put them into better use, the New Area has taken a host of measures, including soil remediation (silt replacement and soil salinity control), coast management (planting mangroves and other wetland plants), and park landscaping (paving viewing plank roads, maintaining lawns, and building dry streams). All these efforts have developed the once-tideland into a coastal eco-wetland, where winding footpaths, lush plants, and well-kept lawns complement each other.