Meanwhile, the veteran-studded cast also includes actor Wu Gang, known for China's all-time highest-grossing film Wolf Warrior 2, and Taiwan actor Chin Shih-chie, a best supporting actor winner at Beijing International Film Festival for the martial arts film The Master in 2016.

Separately, at a recent promotional event in Beijing, Huang said that most of the scenes for the series were shot over eight months at a film and TV drama filming base near the West Taihu Lake in Changzhou, in Jiangsu province.

And he said that the crew used an area covering 10,000 square meters to build streets and houses featuring the architectures of Tianjin in late 1920s.