"The scariest thing in traveling is to buy the ticket. Once you buy a ticket, whatever happens just happens."
In his pack there are no GPS or dry pants. The only must is his sketchbook. He once had a painting exhibition at Chats Palace, London.
He is known for not doing research about the places he is about to visit, and that included China.
Wright expected Chinese people would be quiet, unemotional and reserved. But when he traveled in Harbin, he found "it was absolutely nonsense".
"People there are so lovely. They are obsessed with life and up for anything," he says.
He bumped into a man surnamed Jin, a millionaire who owns a bar in the middle of town. A huge fan of American movies, he likes to turn up in different costumes and imitate movie characters.
He even edits himself into a short video replicating General Patton's 15-minute speech at the beginning of the biopic.
Then Wright met a man surnamed Ma, who was quiet and informative at first, but after two days, he was "out of control". Lively and enthusiastic, he laughed, talked with Wright about his family and the city's history and shared his passion about the Winter Olympics.
Meeting "creative, mad" people is one of the best things about his job, Wright says, and he has the flair to befriend them in a short time with his humbleness and humor.
"England has the reputation of being quite stiff, colonial, superior, the empire, that class thing but when I am doing it, all you see is a monkey that speaks English," he says. "People relate to that."
Having lived most of his life in east London, a relatively undeveloped area of the metropolis, he has developed a mad sense of humor and never feels superior. "Like any group of people suppressed, Eastenders don't give a shit about life," he says. "Everything can be taken as a joke."
He compares himself to "lucky glue" that sticks interesting stories together. "What I have done in life? Nothing. I walk around and do a silly TV program," he says.
"When you are talking to someone who has survived Hiroshima, someone in Mongolia who's got 12 degrees in different subjects and speaks five languages, you are nothing."
His next stop in China might be a film studio near Shanghai.
"Have a look at this Chinese Bollywood and may get a role there," he says.
The first season of Invite Ian Wright, featuring Sri Lanka and India, will run until March 15 on China Travel Satellite Television (TSTV). Season two will premiere on TSTV in the second quarter of 2012. The third season, a three-episode China special, including the city of Harbin, will be broadcast after that.
By Liu Wei
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