And therein lies a key to the approach of Mr. Wood and his producer and director, Rebecca Dobbs. “The Story of China” is framed by the idea that respect for family is the constant thread through 4,000 years of tumultuous and violent history. It’s a simplistic notion, but it’s a natural fit for Mr. Wood’s folksy, intimate storytelling method.

The series has its share of talking scholars, nearly all of them Chinese or Anglo-Chinese (balancing Mr. Wood). And it saves trouble, if not money, by frequently using scenes from Chinese movies and TV dramas to illustrate historical moments. (These serve mainly to warn you off Chinese-produced costume dramas.)

But most of what we see happens in the present. Mr. Wood narrates the past on location, walking or motoring through the modern cities where the events he describes (legendary or more clearly historical) are said to have taken place. It’s history as travelogue, and for many viewers, this will be the reason to watch — a glimpse of places the Bourdains and Zimmerns don’t get to, like the ancient Shang capital of Luoyang. (Many of the people on the streets appear to be Chinese tourists checking out their own heritage.)

Mr. Wood’s awkward enthusiasm seems genuine, though it can start to wear on you. There’s a lot of “Fantastic” and “Isn’t that wonderful.” In what starts to feel like an unintentional running joke, he credits a series of cities, from Xian to Kaifeng to Nanjing to Shanghai, with having been the greatest in the world in their time.

On a less amusing note, he invokes the Uighur minority in western China several times to make the case for various dynasties’ inclusiveness, without mentioning the violent conflict between Uighurs and the central government today. “The Story of China” is good entertainment, if you don’t mind a little whitewashing of recent history.