The Best TV Shows on CCTV-1

This drama describes the life of Zhou Enlai, who serves as Premier of the People's Republic of China, from the founding of the Communist State in 1949 to 1976 until his death.

Zhu Kaishan, a man from Shandong joins settlers in northeast China during the mid-19th century. Amidst turmoil, his family embarks on a journey to reunite, facing numerous challenges as they navigate survival in an unstable era.

This Chinese period drama series follows the fortunes of a prominent merchant family engaged in Traditional Chinese Medicine during the waning years of the Ching dynasty. The affairs of this family of doctors/pharmacists (which in those days were one and the same) are intimately linked with social upheavals of the time such as the encroachment of Christian missionaries and foreign imperialism as well as conflicts that inevitably emerge in a large upper class family. Comparable in scope and production value to such recent titles as "Downton Abbey", the lives and character of both masters and servants intertwine in plot lines that spans more than a generation.

Stories of a judge who lives in the Song Dynasty of China and familiar with forensic pathology.

The rise of the Qin state in the Warring States period during the reign of Duke Xiao of Qin.

The story of Song Yunhui, Lei Dongbao, and Yang Xun as they take part in China’s economic reform from the 1980s to the 1990s.

A retelling of the story of the strong willed Hua Mulan, who ends up joining an all male army in place of her elderly father.

The television serial was based on a legendary folk tale, involving a snake spirit and her male human lover, but was adapted in this version to include the presence of a black snake who is the snake spirit's mentor and the White Snake Spirit being trapped under the pagoda for 20 years, when in the original tale she was trapped under the tower for centuries. As for the green snake, the white snake imprisons her for a short time before releasing her, unlike the original where she imprisoned her for three centuries. Xu Xian is also initially a good-for-nothing who, under the white snake's guidance, becomes an official.

Starring two bears, Briar and Bramble, who continuously try to stop Logger Vick from cutting down trees in their forest. Vick constantly tries to carry out his job as a woodcutter, only to be hilariously outwitted by the bears.

The story of the legendary martial arts icon Bruce Lee following him from Hong Kong to America and back again, leading up to his tragic death at the age of 32.

Set against the backdrop of the return of Macau's sovereignty to China is a realistic retelling of the lives of one family on Macau's old street running the Liang Kee Bakery.