"The last hidden world" "China" "For centuries, travellers to China have told tales of magical landscapes and surprising creatures" "Chinese civilization is the world's oldest and today it's largest with well over a billion people" "It's home to more than 50 distinct ethnic groups(Í¬ÖÖÍ¬ÎÄ"¯Ö®Ãñ×å) and a wide range of traditional life styles often in close partnership with nature" "We know that China faces immense social and environmental problems but there is great beauty here too" "China is home to the world's highest mountains, vast deserts ranging from from searing(×ÆÈÈµÄ) hot to mind numbing cold" "steaming forests harboring rare creatures" "grassy plains beneath vast horizons and rich tropical seas" "Now, for the first time ever we can explore the whole of this great country" "meet some of the surprising and exotic creatures that live here" "and consider the relationship of the people and wildlife of China to the remarkable landscaping which they live" "This is wild China" "Our exploration of China begins in the warm subtropical south" "On the Li River(Àì½­), fishermen and birds perch(ÆÜÏ¢) on bamboo rafts a partnership that goes back more than a thousand years" "This scenery is known throughout the world a recurring motif(Ö÷Ìâ) in Chinese paintings" "and a major tourist attraction(ä¯ÀÀÊ¤µØ)" "The south of China is a vast area eight times larger than the UK" "It's a landscape of hills but also of water" "It rains here for up to 250 days a year and standing water is everywhere" "In a floodplain(ÂþÌ²) of the Yangtse River black-tailed godwits(ºÚÎ²ðÖ) probe(Ì½²â) the mud in search of worms" "But it isn't just wildlife that thrive in this environment the swampy ground provides ideal conditions for the remarkable member of the grass family rice" "The Chinese have been cultivating rice for at least 8 thousand years" "It has transformed a landscape" "Late winter in southern Yunnan, it's a busy time for local farmers as they prepare the age-old paddy field(µ¾Ìï) ready for the coming spring" "These hill slopes of Yuanyang(ÔªÑô[ÏØ]) county plunge nearly 2 thousand meters to the floor of the Red River Valley" "each contains literally thousands of stack terraces carved out by hand using basic digging tools" "Yunnan's rice terraces are among the oldest human structures in China still ploughed as they always have been by domesticated water buffaloes whose ancestors originated in these very valleys" "This man-made landscape is one of the most amazing engineering feats of preindustrial China" "It seems as if every square inch of land has been pressed into cultivation" "As evening approaches an age-old ritual(µäÀñ) unfolds" "It's the mating season and male paddy frogs are competing for the attention of females" "But it dosen't always pay to draw too much attention to youself" "The Chinese Pond Heron(³ØðØ) is a crapulous(±©Ê³µÄ) predator" "Even in the middle of a ploughed paddy field nature is red in beacon claw" "This may look like a slaughter but as each heron can swallow only one frog at a time the vast majority will escape to croak(ßÉßÉ½Ð) another day" "Terrace paddies like those of Yunyang county are found across much of southern China" "This whole vast landscape is dominated by rice cultivation" "In here in Guizhou province, the Miao minority have developed a remarkable rice culture" "With every inch of fertile land given over to rice cultivation the Miao build their wooden houses on the steepest and least productive hillsides" "In Chinese rural life, everything has a use dried in the sun, manure(·ÊÁÏ) from the cowsheds(Å£Åï) would be used as cooking fuel" "It's midday and the Song family are tucking into(Í´¿ì³Ô) a lunch of rice and vegetables" "Oblivious(ÍüÈ´µÄ) to the domestic chitchat(ÏÐÁÄ) granddad Guyong Song has serious maters on his mind" "Spring is a start of the rice growing season the success of the crop will determin how well the family will eat next year so planting at the right time is critical" "The ideal date depends on what the weather will do this year never easy to predict" "But there is some surprising help at hand" "On the ceiling of the Song's living room a pair of red-rumped swallows(½ðÑüÑà) newly arrive from their winter migration is busy fixing up last year's nest" "In China, animals have value does much for their symbolic meaning as for many good they may do" "Miao people believe that swallow pairs remain faithful for life so their presence is a favor and a blessing(ÐÒÊÂ) bringing happiness to a marriage and good luck to a home" "Like most Miao dwellings, the Song's living room windows look out over the paddy fields" "From early spring, one of these windows is always left open to let the swallows come and go freely" "Each year, granddad Gu knows the exat day the swallows return" "Miao people believe the birds arrival predicts the timing of a season ahead" "This year, they were late so Gu and the other community elders have agreed that rice planting should be delayed accordingly" "As the Miao prepare their fields for planting the swallows collect mud to repair their nests and chase after insects across the newly ploughed paddies" "Finally, after weeks of preparation the ordained(×¢¶¨) time for planting has arrived but first the seedlings(×ÑÃç) must be uproot(¸ù³ý) from the nursery beds(Ãç´²)" "and bundled up ready to be transported to their new paddy higher up the hillside" "All the Song's neighbors have turned out(¾Û¼¯) to help with the transplanting" "It's how the community has always worked when the time comes, the Songs will return the favor" "While the farmers are busy in the fields the swallows fly back and forth with material for their nest" "Many hands make light work planting the new paddy takes a little more than an hour" "Job done, the villagers can relax at least until tomorrow" "But for the nesting swallows, the work of raising a family has only just begun" "In the newly planted fields little egrets(°×ðØ) hunt for foods" "The rice paddy(µ¾Ìï) harbor tadpoles, fish and insects and egrets have chicks to feed" "This colony in Chongqing province is established in 1996 when a few dozen birds build nests in the bamboo grove(ÖñÁÖ) behind Yanguang village" "Believing they were assigned of luck local people initially protected the egrets and the colony grove" "But their attitude change when the head of the village fell ill" "They blame the birds and were all set to destroy their nests when the local government stepped in to protect them" "Bedny(Ò×ÍäµÄ) bamboo may not be the safest nesting place but at least these youngsters won't end up at someone's dinner" "These chicks have just had a meal delivered by their mom quite a chance for litter beaks" "Providing their colonies are protected wading birds like egrets are among the few wild creatures which benefit directly from intensive rice cultivation" "Growing rice needs lots of water but even in the rainy south, there are landscapes where water is surprisingly scarce" "This vast area of southwest China the size of France and Spain combined is famous for its clusters of conical(×¶µÄ) hills like giant upturned egg carton(Ö½ÈÝÆ÷) seperated by dry empty valleys" "This is the karst(¿¦Ë¹ÌØ) a limestone terrain which has become the defining image of southern China" "Karst landscapes are often studed with(É¢²¼×Å) rocky outcrops forcing local farmers to cultivate tiny fields" "The people who live here are among the poorest in China" "In neighboring(½ÓÈÀµÄ) Yunnan province limestone rocks have taken over entirely" "This is the famous Stone Forest the product of countless years of erosion producing a maze of deep gullets(Ê³¹Ü) and sharp-edged pinnacles(¼â¶¥)" "Limestone has a strange property that is dissolves in rain water" "Over many thousands of years, water has corrode(Ê´) its way deep into the heart of the bedrock itself" "This natural wonder has a famous tourist spot receiving close to 2m visitors each year" "The Chinese are fond of curiously shaped rocks and many have been given fanciful names" "No prices for guessing what this one is called" "But there is more to this landscape than meets the eye" "China has literally thousands of mysterious caverns(¾Þ¶´) concealed(Òþ²Ø) beneath the visible landscape of the karst" "Much of this hidden world has never been seen by human eyes" "And it's only just now being explored" "For a growing band of intrepid(ÎÞÎ·µÄ) young Chinese explorers caves represent the ultimate adventure" "Exploring a cave is like taking the journey through time a journey which endless raindrops would have followed over countless centuries" "Fed by countless drips(Ë®µÎ) and trickles(µÎÁ÷) the subterranean(µØÏÂµÄ) river carves ever deeper into the rock" "The cave river's course is channeled(Òýµ¼) by the beds of limestone" "A witness in the rock can not allow the river to increase its gradient(Ð±ÂÊ) to flow in providing a real challenge for the cave explorers" "The downward rushes halted when the water table(µØÏÂË®Î") is reached" "Here the slow flowing river carves tunnels with a more rounded profile(ÂÖÀª)" "This tranquil world is home to specialized cave fishes like the eye-less Golden Barb(½ð÷")" "China may have unique kinds of cave evolved fishes than anywhere else on Earth" "Above the water table ancient caverns abandoned by the river slowly fill up with stalactites and stalagmites" "Stalactites form as trickling water deposites tiny quantities of rock over hundreds or thousands of years" "Stalagmites grow up where lime laid and drips hit the cave floor" "So far, only a fraction of China's caves have been thoroughly prospected(Ì½²é) and caves are constantly discovering new subterranean marvels(Ææ¼£) many of which are subsequently developed into commercial show caves" "Finally escaping the darkness the cave river and its human explorers emerge in a valley far from where their journey began or now the adventure is over" "Rivers which issue(³öÀ´) from caves are the key to survival in the karst country" "This vertical gorge in Guizhou province is a focal point(½¹µã) for the region's wildlife" "This is one of the world's rarest primates" "Fran'c'ois' langur(ºÚÒ¶ºï)" "In China, they survive in just two southern provinces" "Guizhou and Guangxi always in ragged limestone terrains" "Like most monkeys, they're social creatures and spend a great deal of time grooming(Ê¹Õû½à) each other" "Langurs are essentially vegetarian with a diet of buds, fruits, and tender young leaves" "Babies are born with jinger fur which gradually turns black from the tail end" "Young infants have a ("¢Ç¯)vise-like grip(Ç¯) used for cling on to mom for deer life" "As they get older they get bolder and take more risks" "Those are the survive spend a lot of time travelling" "Yet experienced adults know exactly where to find seasonal food in different parts of their range" "In such steep terrain travel involves a high level of climbing skill" "These monkeys are spectacularly good rock climbers from the time they learnt to walk" "In langur(Ò¶ºï) society females rule the roost and take the lead when the family is on the move" "One section of cliff woops(Å"ÍÂÎï) is a trickle of mineral-rich water which the monkeys seem to find irresistible" "These days there are few predators in the Mayanghe(ÂéÑôºÓ) Reserve which might pose a risk to baby monkey but in past centuries, this area of south China was home to leopards, pythons, and even tigers" "To survive dangerous night prowlers(Ç±ÐÐÕß) the langurs went underground using their rock climbing skills to seek shelter in inaccessible caverns" "Filmed in near darkness using a night vision camera the troop clmbers(ÅÊ) along familiar ledges(±Ú¼Ü) worn smooth by generations before them" "During cold winter weather the monkeys venture deeper underground where the air stays comparatively warm" "At last, journeys end, a coated niche beyond the reach of even the most enterprising(½øÈ¡µÄ) predator" "But it's not just monkeys that find shelter in caves" "These children are off to school" "In rural China, that may mean a long trek each morning passing through a cave or two on the way" "But not all pupils have to walk to school" "These children are boarder(¼ÄËÞÉú)" "As the day pupils near journey's end the boarders are still making breakfast" "In the school yard, someone seems to have switched the lights off" "But this is no ordinary play ground and no ordinary school" "Its house inside a cave" "A natural vault(¹°¶¥) of rock keeps out the rain so there is no need for a roof on the classroom" "Zhongdong cave school is made up of 6 classes with a total of 200 children" "As well as a school, the cave houses 18 families together with their livestock" "This could be the only cave dwelling cows on Earth" "With school work over, it's play time at last" "In southern China, caves aren't just used for shelter they can be a source of revenue for the community" "People have been visiting this cave for generations" "The cave floor is covered in guano(Äñ·à) so plentiful that 10 minutes' work can fill these farmer's baskets" "This used as a valuable source of fertilizer" "A clue to the source of the guano can be heard above the noise of the river" "The sound originates high up in the roof of the cave" "The entrance is full of swifts" "They are very sociable birds more than 200,000 of them share this cave in southern Guizhou province" "The biggest swift colony in China" "These days, Chinese house swifts mostly nest in the roofs of buildings but rock crevasses(ÁÑÏ¶) like these were their original home long before houses were invented" "Though the swifts depend on the cave for shelter they never stray(×ßÀë) further than the limits of daylight as their eyes can't see in dark" "However, deep inside the cavern are the creatures are better equipped for subterranean life" "A colony of bats is just waking up using ultrasonic squeaks to orientate themselves in the darkness" "Night is the time to go hunting" "Rickett's mouse-eared bat(ÈðÊÏÊó¶úòð) is the only bat in Asia which specializes in catching fishes tracking them down from the sound reflection of ripples(Ð¡²¨ÀË) on the water surface" "This extraordinary behavior was only discovered in the last couple of years and has never been filmed before" "If catching fish in the dark is impressive imagine eating a slippery minnow(Ã×ÅµÓã) with no hands while hanging upside down" "Dawn, over the karst hills of Guilin" "These remarkable hills owe their peculiar shapes to the mildly(ÂÔÎ¢) acid waters of the Li River whose meandering(òêÑÑµÄ) course over eons of time has corrode(¸¯Ê´) away their basis" "until only the rocky course remained" "Li is one of the cleanest rivers in China a favorite spot for fishermen with their trained cormorants(ðµðË)" "The men, all called Huang, come from the same village now in their seventies and eighties they've been fishermen all their lives" "Before they release the birds they tie a noose(ÉþÈ¦), loosely around the neck to stop them swallowing any fish they may catch" "Chancing and dancing, the Huangs encourage their birds to take the plunge" "Underwater the cormorant's hunting instinct kicks in(½É¸¶×Ô¼ºÓ¦¸¶µÄ²¿·Ö) turning them into fish seeking missiles(µ¼µ¯)" "Working together, a good cormorant team can catch a couple of dozen decent-sized fish in a morning" "The birds return to the raft with their fish because they've been trained to do so" "From the time it first hatched each of these cormorants has been reared to a life of obedience to its master" "The birds are, in effect, slaves" "But they are not stupid" "It's said the cormorants can key(¼üÈë) the tally(¼ÆÊý) of the fish they catch at least up to seven" "So unless they get a reward now and then, they simply withdraw their labor" "The fishermen of course keep the best fish for themselves" "The cormorants get the leftover tiddlies(y,¾Æ)" "With its collar removed the bird can at last swallow its prize" "Best of all(×îºÃµØ), when it isn't meant to have..." "These days, competition for modern fishing techniques means the Huangs can't make a living from traditional cormorant fishing alone" "And this 1300-year old tradition is now practiced mostly to entertain tourists" "But on Caohai(²Ýº£) lake in nearby Guizhou Province an even more unusual fishing industry is alive and well" "Geng Zhongsheng is on his way to set out his net for the night" "Geng's net is a strange tubular(¹Ü×´µÄ) contraption(×°ÖÃ) with a closed off end" "More than a hundred fishermen make their living from the lake" "Its mineral-rich waters are highly productive and there are nets everywhere" "The next morning, Geng returns with his son to collect his catch" "At first sight, it looks disappointing" "Tiny fishes, lots of shrimps, and some wriggling(e,Å¤¶¯) bugs" "Geng doesn't seem too downhearted(Ïû³ÁµÄ)" "The larger fish are kept alive the only way they'll stay fresh in the heat" "Surprisingly, some of the bugs are also singled out for special treatment" "They are the young stage of dragonflies predators that feed on worms and tadpoles" "Nowhere else in the world are dragonfly nymphs(Ó¼) harvested like this" "Back home, Geng spreads his catch on the roof to dry" "It's being China, nothing edible would be wasted" "There is a saying in the far south" ""We will eat anything with legs, except a table;" "and anything with wings, except a plane."" "Within a few hours, the dried insects are ready to be backed up(Ê¹¾Û¼¯) and taken to market" "Its the dragonfly nymphs that fetch the best price" "Fortunately, Caohai's dragonflies are abundant and fast breeding so Geng and his fellow fishermen have so far had little impact on their numbers" "But not all wildlife is so resilient" "This buddhist temple near Shanghai has an extraordinary story attached to it" "In May 2007" "A Wild China camera team filmed this peculiar Swinhoe's turtle(°ß¹ê) in the temple's fishpond" "According to the monks, this turtle had been given to the temple during the Ming dynasty over 400 years ago" "It was thought to be the oldest animal on Earth" "Soft shell turtles are considerd a good-made delicacy by many Chinese and when it was filmed this was one of just three Swinhoe's Turtles left alive in China" "The rest of its kind having been rounded up and eaten" "Sadly, just a few weeks after filming this ancient creature died" "The remaining individuals of its species are currently kept in seperate zoos and Swinhoe's Turtle is now reckoned extinct in the wild" "In fact, most of the 25 types of fresh water turtles in China are now vanishingly rare" "The answer to extinction is protection" "And there is now a growing network of nature reserves through southern China" "Of these, the Tianzi(Ìì×Ó) Mountain Reserve at Zangjiajie is perhaps the most visited by Chinese nature lovers who come to marvel at(¾ªÆæÓÚ) the gravity-defying landscape of soaring sandstone(É°Ê¯) pinnacles" "Winding between Zhangjiajie's peaks crystal clear mountain streams are home to what is perhaps China's strangest creature" "This bizarre animal is a type of newt(òîó¢) the Chinese Giant Salamander" "In China, it is known as the baby fish because when distressed(Í´¿àµÄ), it makes a sound like a crying infant" "It grows up to a meter and a half long making it the world's largest amphibian" "Under natural conditions, a Giant Salamander may live decades" "But like so many Chinese animals it is considered delicious to eat" "Despite being classed as protected species giant salamanders are still illegally sold for food and the baby fish is now rare and endangered(±ôÎ£µÄ) in the wild" "Fortunately in a few areas like Zhangjiajie," "Giang Salamanders still survive under strict official protection" "The rivers of Zhangjiajie flow northeast into the Yangtse floodplain known as the land of fish and rice" "On an island in a lake in Anhui province a dragon is stirring" "This is the ancestral home of China's larges and rarest reptile" "A creature of mystery and legend" "Dragon eggs are greatly prized these babies need to hatch out quick" "It would seem someone is on their trail" "For a helpless baby reptile imprisoned in a leathery membrane inside a choky(ÖÏÏ¢µÄ) shell a process of hatching is a titanic straggle" "And time is running out" "It's taken 2 hours for the little dragon to get its head out of this egg" "It needs to gather its strength now a final massive push" "Free at last the baby Chinese alligators instinctively head upwards toward the surface of the nest and a ... side world" "But the visitors are not what they seem" "Sheshuzhen and her son live nearby" "She has been caring for her local alligators for over 20 years so she had fair idea when the eggs will likely to hatch" "Back home, she's built a pond, surrounded by netting to keep out predators where her charges will spend the next 6 months until they are big enough to fend for themselves" "For the past twenty years small scale conservation projects like this are all that have kept China's 150 wild alligators from extinction" "Just south of the alligator country dawn breaks over a very different landscape" "The 1800 meter high granite("¨¸ÚÑÒ) peaks of the Huangshan or yellow mountain" "To the Chinese" "Huangshan's pines(ËÉÊ÷) are peak mines, the strength, and resilience of nature" "Some of these trees are thought to be over a thousand years old" "Bellow the granite("¨¸ÚÑÒ) peaks steep forest in the valleys shelter surprising inhabitants" "Huangshan macaques(â¨ºï) rare descendents of the Tibetan macaques of western China are unique to these mountain valleys where they enjoy strict official protection" "After a morning spent in the treetops the troop is heading for the shade of the valley a chance for the grownups escape the heat and maybe pickup a lanch snack from the stream" "As in most monkey societies social contact involves a lot of grooming" "Grooming is all very well for grownups" "But young macaques have energy to burn" "Like so much monkey business what starts off is a bit of playful(ÍçÆ¤µÄ) rough-and-tumble("ìÕ½) soon begin to get out of hand(Ê§¿Ø)" "The alpha male has seen it all before he's not in the least(Ò"µãÒ²²") bothered" "but someone or something is watching with a less than(¸ù±¾²") friendly interest" "The Chinese Moccasin(Îå²½Éß/°Ù²½Éß/¼âÎÇòó) is ambush predator with a deadly bite" "This is one of China's largest and most feared varmint(Á÷Ã¥) snakes" "But the mondkeys have lived alongside these dangerous serpent for thousands of years" "They use this, specific alarm call, to warn each other whenever a snake is spotted" "Once its cover is blown, the bite proposes no threat to the monkeys now safe in the treetops" "And life soon returens to normal" "By later summer, the rice fields of southern China have turn to gold" "The time has come to bring in the harvest" "Nowadays, modern high yield strains(ÈË¹¤ÅàÖ²Àà) are grown throughout much of the rice lands" "Boosted by chemical fertilizers and reaped by combine harvesters(ÁªºÏÊÕ¸î"ú)" "This is the great rice bowl(Ë®µ¾ÖÖÖ²Çø) of China producing a quarter of the world's rice" "Insects, stirred up by the noisy machines, are snapped up(Ñ¸ËÙµÃµ½) by gangs of red-rumped(ÍÎ) swallows including this year's youngsters who have fledged(³¤Ã") several keeks ago" "This could be their last feast before they head for the winter" "Mechanized farming works best in the flat bottom valleys of the lowland" "To the south, in the terraced hills in Zhejiang province an older and simpler lifestyle persists" "It's 7 in the morning and Longxian's(ÁúÏÖ[´å]) most successful business man is off to work" "In the golden terraces surrounding the village the ears(Ëë) of rice are plump(·áÂúµÄ) and right for harvesting" "But today, rice isn't at the most in Mr Yang's mind" "He has bigger fish to fry" "Further at valley, the harvest has already began" "Yang's fields are ripe too but they haven't been drained yet" "That's because for him, rice is not the main crop" "The baskets he's carried up the hillside give a clue to Yang's business" "But before he starts work he needs to let some water out of the system" "As the water level drops the mystery is revealed golden cub" "Longxian villages discoverd the benefits of transferring wild caught cub into their paddy fields long ago" "The tradition has been going on here for at least 700 years" "As the water level in the paddy drops bamboo gate stop the fish's escaping" "The beauty of this farming method is that it delivers two crops from the same field at the same time fish and rice" "Smart ecology like this is what enables China to be largely self-sufficient in food even today" "Back in the village" "Yang has his own smoke house(ÑÌÑ¬ÊÒ) where he preserves his fish ready for market" "Longxian cub have unusually soft scales and a very delicate flavor perhaps as a result of the local water" "Meanwhile, outside the smoke house there is something fishy(¿ÉÒÉµÄ) going on" "To mark the harvest the village is staging a party" "Children from Longxian school have spent weeks preparing for their big moment" "Everyone from the community is here to support them" "The rice growing cycle is complete" "By November northern China is becoming distinctly chilly but the south is still relatively warm and welcoming" "Accross the vast expanse of Poyang lake the birds are gathering" "Tundra swans(Ìì¶ì) are long-distance migrant from northern Siberia" "To the Chinese, they symbolize the essence of natural beauty" "The Poyang Lake Nature Reserve offers winter refuge to more than a quarter of a million birds for than 100 species creating one of southern China's finest wildlife experiences" "The last birds to arrive at Poyang are those which have made the longest journey to get here" "All the way from the arctic coast of Siberia" "The Siberian Crane, known in China, the White Crane is seen as a symbol of good luck" "Each year, almost the entire world population of these critically endangered birds make a 9000km round trip(Íù·µÂÃÐÐ) to spend the winter at Poyang" "Like the white cranes many of southern China's unique animals face pressure from exploitation and competition with people over space and resources" "But if China is leaving proof of anything it is that wildlife is surprisingly resilient" "Gien the right help even the rarest creatures can return from the brink(ÑÂ±ß)" "If we show the will nature will find the way." "1/Cathay Proudly Presents"