The screenshot from the second season of the documentary "A Bite of China"shows the making of Leishan fish sauce. [Photo: screenshot from "A Bite of China II"]

The second season of the popular food documentary "A Bite of China" is proving to be an economic gold mine for restaurants and producers who create the foods being documented in the show.

Figures show that some two million people used smart phones to trawl the web for food search at the time when the first episode was aired. More than three-thousand strips of Sichuan bacon and Beijing roast duck were sold at online store Tianmao.com around the same time.

The site's data shows that 3,400 bottles of honey produced in Linzhi county, Tibet autonomous region, were sold in seven days since the first episode was aired. Some 1,100 sales of Shannxi hand-made noodles were made within the two days.

Another big seller is Leishan fish sauce, which only comes from a remote town in Yunnan province. A thousand bags of Leishan fish sauce were sold in half a day. Cao Qiankun is a local resident who lives close to the small town.

"Usually we can have the fish sauce at our daily meal--it's so common. But after 'A Bite of China II' aired, we locals can't afford to eat it. Because so many people are ordering it via the internet, the price of the sauce goes up. We only make it once a year because of the season of the fish and other flavors."

"A Bite of China 2" has blended in a variety of filming and editing techniques. Each episode uses diverse methods to tell a story. Comprised of eight episodes, it covers the stories of more than 150 people and over 300 dishes, with each episode filmed by a different team.

But since the first episode was aired, some netizens have expressed a certain level of regret, saying that the series put too much emphasis on telling stories about emotions and the people's lives, rather than the food itself. Li Wen is one of them.

"It's kind of too much about sensibility and emotion. It will be too much if a documentary puts a lot of efforts on depicting people's lives and relations at a spiritual level. I prefer the focus still be on the food itself."

But Xiaole, another "a Bite of China" fan says, as a documentary, emotion is the soul of a success.

"As a documentary, it needs to have emotion, it makes audience feel attached to it, no matter what it's about. I remember recently, the elderly man, who is in the second series making noodles, passed away. Many people know this piece of news and feel sorry about it. This is an example of how a food documentary making people care about life."

Three episodes of a Bite of China II have aired since April. The show airs every Friday evening.

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