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Civilization teams up with Quan Peng to shoot spot for Alibaba Travel Services in China

alibabaShanghai-based independent agency Civilization has created a short film for Alibaba Travel Services featuring Quan Peng, a 29-year-old traveller who is traversing the length of China in his wheelchair.

Paralysed from the waist down since he was 14, Peng has logged over 5,000 kilometres since he left Beijing in August 2014. His goal is to travel across China to its southernmost tip on the island of Hainan, which the Chinese refer to as the ‘world’s end’.

“I came across his story on CNN and was deeply moved,” said Andrew Lok, the film’s director and founder of Civilization. “Serendipitously, we had a brief from Alibaba Travel Services to create a film about those who dream of travelling. I immediately shared his tale with Andrew Yang, the marketing director, who green-lit the project on the spot.”

Peng’s two-year journey was interrupted by Civilization with an offer to take him to another ‘world’s end’ – the Arctic Circle – where Finland’s tourism authority helped facilitate a shoot in Lapland.

“The biggest challenge was to recreate his two-year journey across the varied landscapes of China and take into account the changing of seasons he experienced, all shot within the space of just one week and in only one province, Guangzhou,” Lok added. “It is a testament to our location and cinematography teams that we were able to pull it off.”

The film was shot by production company Nuts Films, with cinematography by Ke-Nan Qi.

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