Sixteen foreign students participate in the China Central Television's Channel 4 reality TV show. [Photo/CNTV]

Earlier, through the reality show, he spent time with folk musicians in Shaanxi province and also visited the Taoist holy site, the Wudang Mountains, in Hubei province to learn tai chi.

"Culture is part of local people's daily life rather than being a hobby or a stage performance," he says, adding that it makes such places come alive.

To JongMay Urbonya, 20, the show isn't just a personal journey. The US citizen studies dance at Beijing Normal University.

"We also have a sense of history participating in their daily life and entertainment," she says of the chance to meet Chinese from different areas of the country.

Although the show's crew offer some representative aspects of each place where the students are taken, they do not provide the participants with detailed scripts ahead of time and allow the students time for on-site explorations as well.

What a foreigner really wants to know about China is probably different from what Chinese people would expect them to ask, Rosevear says.

"What makes me curious is why the villagers are always so happy and nice to us."

According to Guan Zhengwen, the director of China - Through My Eyes, the show is made for Chinese audiences to better understand their own country.