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1、,(SQUAWKING) NARRATOR: The last hidden world, China. For centuries, travellers to China have told tales of magical landscapes and surprising creatures. Chinese civilisation is the worlds oldest and today, its largest, with well over a billion people. Its home to more than 50 distinct ethnic groups a
2、nd a wide range of traditional lifestyles, 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 worlds highest mountains, vast deserts ranging from searing hot to mind-numbing cold. Steam
3、ing forests harbouring 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
4、 China to the remarkable landscape in which they live. This is Our exploration of China begins in the warm, subtropical south. On the Li River, fishermen and birds perch on bamboo rafts, a partnership that goes back more than a thousand years. This scenery is known throughout the world, a recurring
5、motif in Chinese paintings. And a major tourist attraction. The south of China is a vast area, eight times larger than the UK. Its a landscape of hills but also of water.(THUNDER RUMBLING)It rains here for up to 250 days a year, and standing water is everywhere. (THUNDER RUMBLING) In the floodplain
6、of the Yangtze River, black-tailed godwits probe the mud in search of worms. But isnt just wildlife that thrives in this environment. The swampy ground provides ideal conditions for a remarkable member of the grass family. Rice. The Chinese have been cultivating rice for at least 8,000 years. It has
7、 transformed the landscape. Late winter in southern Yunnan is a busy time for local farmers as they prepare the age-old paddy fields ready for the coming spring. These hill slopes of the Yuanyang County plunge nearly 2,000 metres to the floor of the Red River valley. Each contains literally thousand
8、s of stacked terraces carved out by hand using basic digging tools. Yunnans 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
9、 most amazing engineering feats of pre-industrial China. It seems as if every square inch of land has been pressed into cultivation. As evening approaches, an age-old ritual unfolds. Its the mating season and male paddy frogs are competing for the attention of the females. But it doesnt always pay t
10、o draw too much attention to yourself. The Chinese pond heron is a pitiless predator. Even in the middle of a ploughed paddy field, nature is red in beak and 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 another day
11、. Terraced paddies like those of the Yuanyang County are found across much of southern China. This whole vast landscape is dominated by rice cultivation. In hilly Guizhou Province, the Miao minority have developed a remarkable rice culture. With every inch of fertile land given over to rice cultivat
12、ion, 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 from the cow sheds will be used as cooking fuel. (WOMEN CHATTERING IN CHINESE) Its midday, and the Song family are tucking into a lunch of ric
13、e and vegetables. (SPEAKING IN CHINESE) Oblivious to the domestic chit-chat, Granddad Gu Yong Xiu has serious matters on his mind. Spring is the start of the rice growing season. The success of the crop will determine how well the family will eat next year, so planting at the right time is critical.
14、 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 Songs living room, a pair of red-rumped swallows, newly arrived from their winter migration, is busy fixing up last years nest. In China, animals are
15、 valued as much for their symbolic meaning as for any good they may do. Miao people believe that swallow pairs remain faithful for life, so their presence is a favour and a blessing, bringing happiness to a marriage and good luck to a home. Like most Miao dwellings, the Songs living room windows loo
16、k 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 notes the exact day the swallows return. Miao people believe the birds arrival predicts the timing of the season ahead. This year, they were late. S
17、o 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
18、 time for planting has arrived. But first the seedlings must be uprooted from the nursery beds and bundled up ready to be transported to their new paddy higher up the hillside. All the Songs neighbours have turned out to help with the transplanting. Its how the community has always worked. When the
19、time comes, the Songs will return the favour. 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 little more than an hour. Job done, the villagers can relax, at least until tomorrow. But for
20、 the nesting swallows, the work of raising a family has only just begun. In the newly planted fields, little egrets hunt for food. The rice paddies harbour tadpoles, fish and insects and the egrets have chicks to feed. This colony in Chongqing Province was established in 1996, when a few dozen birds
21、 built nests in the bamboo grove behind Yang Guang village. Believing they were a sign of luck, local people initially protected the egrets and the colony grew. But their attitude changed when the head of the village fell ill. They blamed the birds and were all set to destroy their nests, when the l
22、ocal government stepped in to protect them. Bendy bamboo may not be the safest nesting place, but at least this youngster wont end up as someones dinner. These chicks have just had an eel delivered by their mum, quite a challenge for little beaks. (CHIRPING) Providing their colonies are protected, w
23、ading 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 com
24、bined, is famous for its clusters of conical hills, like giant upturned egg cartons, separated by dry empty valleys. This is the karst, a limestone terrain which has become the defining image of southern China. Karst landscapes are often studded with rocky outcrops, forcing local farmers to cultivat
25、e tiny fields. The people who live here are among the poorest in China. In neighbouring 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 gullies and sharp-edged pinnacles. Limestone has the
26、 strange property that it dissolves in rainwater. Over many thousands of years water has corroded its way deep into the heart of the bedrock itself. This natural wonder is a famous tourist spot, receiving close to two million visitors each year. The Chinese are fond of curiously-shaped rocks and man
27、y have been given fanciful names. No prizes for guessing what this one is called! But theres more to this landscape than meets the eye. China has literally thousands of mysterious caverns concealed beneath the visible landscape of the karst. Much of this hidden world has never been seen by human eye
28、s and is only just now being explored. (MAN SPEAKING CHINESE) For a growing band of intrepid young Chinese explorers, caves represent the ultimate adventure. Exploring a cave is like taking a journey through time. Ajourney which endless raindrops will have followed over countless centuries. Fed by c
29、ountless drips and trickles, the subterranean river carves ever deeper into the rock. The cave rivers course is channelled by the beds of limestone. A weakness in the rock can allow the river to increase its gradient and flow-rate, providing a real challenge for the cave explorers. The downward rush
30、 is halted when the water table is reached. Here the slow-flowing river carves tunnels with a more rounded profile. (MEN CHATTERING) This tranquil world is home to specialised cave fishes, like the eyeless golden barb. China may have more unique kinds of cave-evolved fishes than anywhere else on ear
31、th. Above the water table, ancient caverns abandoned by the river slowly fill up with stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites form as trickling water deposits tiny quantities of rock over hundreds or thousands of years. Stalagmites grow up where lime-laden drips hit the cave floor. Oi! Whoo-hoo! So
32、 far, only a fraction of Chinas caves have been thoroughly prospected and cavers are constantly discovering new subterranean marvels, 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
33、 where their journey began. For now, the adventure is over. Rivers which issue from caves are the key to survival in the karst country. This vertical gorge in Guizhou Province is a focal point for the regions wildlife. This is one of the worlds rarest primates, Fran is langur. In China they survive
34、in just two southern provinces, Guizhou and Guangxi, always in rugged limestone terrains. Like most monkeys, they are social creatures and spend a great deal of time grooming each other. Langurs are essentially vegetarian with a diet of buds, fruits and tender young leaves. Babies are born with ging
35、er fur, which gradually turns black from the tail end. Young infants have a vice-like grip, used to cling on to mum for dear life. As they get older, they get bolder and take more risks. Those that survive spend a lot of time travelling. The experienced adults know exactly where to find seasonal foo
36、ds 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 learn to walk. In langur society, females rule the roost and take the lead when the family is on the move. One section of
37、 cliff oozes a trickle of mineral-rich water which the monkeys seem to find irresistible. These days there are few predators in the Mayanghe Reserve which might pose a risk to a baby monkey. But in past centuries, this area of south China was home to leopards, pythons and even tigers. To survive dan
38、gerous night prowlers, 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 clambers along familiar ledges worn smooth by generations before them. During cold winter weather, the monkeys
39、 venture deeper underground where the air stays comparatively warm. At last, journeys end. A cosy niche beyond the reach of even the most enterprising predator. But its not just monkeys that find shelter in caves. These children are off to school. In rural China that may mean a long trek each mornin
40、g, passing through a cave or two on the way. But not all pupils have to walk to school. These children are boarders. (LAUGHING) As the day pupils near journeys end, the boarders are still making breakfast. In the schoolyard, someone seems to have switched the lights off. But this is no ordinary play
41、ground, and no ordinary school. Its housed inside a cave! A natural vault of rock keeps out the rain so theres no need for a roof on the classroom. Zhongdong cave school is made up of six classes, with a total of 200 children. As well as the school, the cave houses 18 families, together with their l
42、ivestock. (COW MOOING) These could be the only cave-dwelling cows on earth. (PIG SQUEALS) With schoolwork over, its playtime at last. In southern China, caves arent just used for shelter, they can be a source of revenue for the community. People have been visiting this cave for generations. The cave
43、 floor is covered in guano, so plentiful that 10 minutes work can fill these farmers baskets. Its 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
44、. Theyre 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 crevices like these were their original home, long before houses were invented. Th
45、ough the swifts depend on the cave for shelter, they never stray further than the limits of daylight, as their eyes cant see in the dark. However, deep inside the cavern, other creatures are better equipped for subterranean life. A colony of bats is just waking up, using ultrasonic squeaks to orient
46、ate themselves in the darkness. Night is the time to go hunting. Ricketts mouse-eared bat is the only bat in Asia which specialises in catching fishes, tracking them down from the sound reflection of ripples on the water surface. This extraordinary behaviour was only discovered in the last couple of
47、 years, and has never been filmed before. If catching fish in the dark is impressive, imagine eating a slippery minnow with no hands while hanging upside down. Dawn over the karst hills of Guilin. These remarkable hills owe their peculiar shapes to the mildly acid waters of the Li River, whose meandering course over eons of time has corroded away their bases until only the rocky cores remain. The Li is one of the cleanest rivers in China, a favourite spot for fishermen with their trained cormorants. (SPEAKING IN CHIN