Wild China - S01E04

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-6 10:49

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Season 01 Episode 04
0‘ - 12’

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The Great Wall of China was built by the Han Chinese to keep out the nomadic tribe from the north. They call these people *** and their lands are considered *** and inhabitable. Northern China is indeed a harsh place of terrible winters, ferocious summers, parch deserts, but it is far from lifeless, with colorful places, surprising creatures, amazing people, and strange landscapes. The further we travel the more extreme it becomes. So how do people and wild life cope with the hardships and challenges of life be on the world.

The limits of ancient China were defined by the Great Wall, which merely end for nearly 5ooo kilometers from east to west. The settled Han people of Chinese *** land were invaded many times by war-like tribes from the north. The Great Wall was built to protect Han Chinese from invasion. To meet those fearsome northerners and the wild creatures who share their world, we must leave the shelter of the wall and travel into the unknown. Northeast China was known historically as ***, its upper reaches are on the same latitude as Paris, but in winter it is one of the coldest, most hostile places on the planet.

Bitter winds from Siberia regularly bring temperature 40 degrees below zero. Dense forests of ever green trees cover this land, and the rugged terrain is made even more difficult by penetrable ***. We start our journey on the frozen river, snaking between the northeast most corner and Siberia, the Chinese call it the black dragon river. The people who live here aren’t exact fearsome and worriers, they are too busy coping with the harsh winter conditions, and they respond to the challenge in creative ways.

The black dragon river is home to one of the smallest ethnic groups in China, the Hezhe people. It’s not just bicycles at scene out of place in this icy world, fishing boats and nets lie abandoned along way in the open water. Underneath a meter of solid ice swim a huge variety fish, including 500 pounds sturgeon, and *** to feed the family of Hezhe for weeks. But how can they catch their coring? First they must chise a hole through the ice to reach the water below. Then they need to set their net under the ice, a real challenge. A second hole is made 20 meters away from the first and weighted string is dropped in. Then a long bamboo pole is used to hook the string, and put the nets into position beneath the ice. After a few days the nets are checked. These days almost nobody catches a real giant sturgeon. The black dragon has been over fished like so many others. But even these smaller fish are a welcome catch. Frozen within several minutes the fish are guaranteed to stay fresh for the *** cycle ride home.

The forests that lie south of the black dragon river are bound up with snow for more than half of the year. It’s deathly silent. Most of the animals here are ride the hibernating and have migrated south for the winter. But there is an exception. Wild bulls *** the forests of the northeast. Like the Hezhe people the bulls find it difficult to gather food in winter. To survive they follow their noses, among the keenest in the animal kingdom. They *** anything they unearth, but one energy rich food is particularly valued, *** nut. When a lucky wild bull finds a *** nut, that it’s bound to trouble. But despite the *** wild bulls are social animals and gather together in groups. Staying together helps them to keep warm in the extreme cold. But there’s another reason for group living: more ears to listen out for danger.

Siberian tiger also lives in this forest, but these days only in captivity. There may be less than a dozen wild Siberian tigers left in China though there are more in breeding centers. This enclosure *** Hezhe started breeding tigers in 1986 to supply bones and body part for Chinese medicine need. Trade in tiger is banned in China in 1990s and the breeding center is now just a tourist attraction.

The forest of the northeast stretches to where the Chinese, Russian and Mongolian borders meet. Here a surprising herd of animals are on the move. The *** deer were introduced to China hundreds of years ago by nomadic *** people who came here from Siberia. It’s late April and the women are calling their *** deer which are semi-wild and spent the whole winter way in the forest. It’s a very special relationship, each *** deer has its own name and many were *** by this woman. Finally reunited after the months apart, they will now remain together until autumn.

The *** women are anxious to check the condition of the animals and to see which of the *** deer might be pregnant.

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-7 14:52

12‘ - 21’

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81-year old *** is one of only 30 *** people still living the nomadic life in this cold northern lands. Almost all her fellow *** have given up the forest life to settle in concrete houses in modern cities. The *** deer herds are now almost as rare as wild Siberian tigers.

There’s about to be a new addition to the family. The women act as *** to the new born ***, helping to nurture them through their first precious minutes of their life. But the world around them is changing fast, this could be the last generation this ancient partnership would endure. This is hardly the dangerous tribal people that the Great Wall was built to keep away.
Along China’s border with North Korea is this region’s most famous mountain: Changbaishan. Its
name means ever white. It harbors the world’s highest volcanic lake. Even in mid May there’s still ice everywhere, but there’re signs that the seasons are changing. Warm winds arrive from the south and within a few weeks Changbai mountain is transformed. Water begins to flow down from the mountain side once more, replenishing the landscape. It’s June and insects emerge to take advantage of the abundance of the flowers.

The warm weather sees the arrival of migrant birds. Stone ***, that haves pent the winter in south of China, return here to raise their chicks. With so many insects around, the stone *** may have several broods. Heading west from Changbai Mountain the forests give way to rolling grassland. The Great Wall stretches off into the distance, defining the southern limit of the vast Mongolian step.

North of the wall are huge areas of grassland, but one place in our journey is particularly significant. In the tall grass a family of red foxes is raising its ***. Today they have this medal pretty much to themselves. But it wasn’t always the case. 8 centuries ago this place would be *** with people. Now these ruins in the field that’s short distance from Beijing are all that remains of the great city of ***, once the summer capital of China.

Within these walls it is said that the head of the Mongolians, ***, welcomed Marco Polo to China. Mongolian warriors established the greatest empire in history, stretching to the borders of Europe. Feared with this warrior tribe is the main reason that the Han Chinese built the Great Wall. The cornerstone of Mongolian supremacy was their relationship with horses. This is what brought them such success in war. The Mongolian raiders traveled light, and rode with spare horses, so they can move huge distances strike and then *** than their opponents.

Other heart of Mongolian culture is horse racing. The annual *** festival held each July is a chance for young Mongolian to show off their horsemanship. It’s said that Mongolian people are born in the saddle, even as children they are *** riders. Horsemanship was the core of the Mongolian success as warriors in the past and is central to their life as nomads today.

过份 · 发表于 2008-8-7 17:38

好像有个id叫转经篇$考虑$

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-8 19:36

20‘ - 30’
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In an area of grassland known as ***, families of Mongolian are gathering. The name *** means rich head waters and they’ve come here to set up temporary homes to grace a life stock on the lush summer ***. The search for fresh ford for their animals keeps them on the go, and being able to move home so easily is a real advantage. It takes only a few minutes for the Mongolian family to set up their yurts. But the Mongolian don’t have this place all to themselves.

The rich resources also attract the huge variety of birds. The Mosel cranes, wading birds and waterfowl migrate here from all over Asia, drawn to the rivers of wetland, fed by glacier melt water from nearby mountains. This place is known in China as one lake. It is the world’s most important breeding site for *** swans and mosquitoes as well.

The *** at the swan lake provide endless grass for birds to nest in and for life stock to eat. It would seem there’s plenty for everybody, but occasionally they can’t get too close for comfort. 800 years ago Mongolian people are the most feared people on Earth, but they have a spiritual side as well. The birds of swan lake have little cause to worry. The Mongolians protect these ones and venerate them, calling them birds of god.

The Great Wall’s journey through northern China continues westward, by setting a landscape that becomes increasingly parched. Our journey has brought a half way across northern China and the grasslands are becoming hot, dry and deserted. Wandering these wastes are creatures that look more African than Asian. These are ***, *** and easily ***. When threatened by danger they are as fast as race horse, but in this *** they favor a gentler pace. There’s little standing water here but the *** have remarkable ability to extract water from dry grass, although finding enough worth eating keeps them constantly move.

Even out here in the semi-deserts, the wall continues its long march. Here it’s made of little more compacted earth, but with hardly any rain falling, it suffers very little erosion over centuries. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives building it, yet it seems hard to believe that anyone felt this distant waste land needed protecting. But the wall still has one final surprise. This is Jiayuguan, the mighty fortress in the desert. Built in the Ming dynasty over 600 hundred years ago, legend says the construction of the fortress is so *** planed that one hundred thousand bricks were specially made and only one brick was left unused. This fortress marks the end of the Great Wall of China, the greatest man-made barrier on Earth. But ahead lies a even more formidable barrier, a vast, no man’s land of desert that stretches westward to the borders of central Asia. Jiayuguan fortress was considered to be the last outpost of Chinese civilization. Beyond this point lay ***.

China’s largest desert, the Takalamagan, lies out here, its name has been translated as ‘you go in and you never come out’. This is a place of intense heat, the brassive wind blow sand, totally hostile to life. Yet there was a route through the desert for those brave enough to risk their lives for it. People were *** into the horrors of the deserts, because the Chinese had a secrete so power that it changed the course of the history. The key to the secrete lies in the distant past. Legend has it that around 5000 years ago, a princess was walking in her garden when something unusual fell into her tea cup. A magical thread was extracted, and it became more prized than gold or jade, the thread was silk.

Incredibly such a beautiful substance and all the history behind it comes from a humble little insects, the silk worm. Silk moths lay several hundred eggs and the tiny caterpillars that emerge eat nothing but mulberry leaves. After 50 days of ***, they grow 10 thousand heavier. By this stage 25% of their body mass is made up of silk glands. In the process turning into adult moths they spin a cocoon from a single strand silk which can be over a thousand meters long. It was the legendary strength and brightness of silk fibers that made it so ***.

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-9 09:59

30‘ - 40’

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For over 5000 years people built great fortuned and mighty kingdoms on these delicate thread. And the desert routes those ancient traders took became the fabled silk road. The principle of extracting silk hasn’t changed since its discovery. *** cocoons are dropped into boiling water which unruffles the ***. These are then gathered on *** into raw silk thread. Here at Houtan, on the ancient silk road, silk *** is still a cottage industry down the old fashion way on wooden ***. For the ancient silk road traders the problem is still how to get the valuable silk from the fortress at Jiayuguan through the desert to the markets in central Asia and beyond.

Those early travelers heading west on the silk road were setting off for the worst voyage imaginable through some of the most terrible places on Earth. Starting with the world’s tallest sand dunes, strong winds sweeping in from the west, blow the sand into ever higher dunes. Over millennia, mega dunes built up, walls of sands soaring to over 500 meters tall.

Camels are the only beast of burden that can *** these monstrous dunes, their feet wide and spread outward to stop them sinking in loose sand. The wind that sweeps the sand into dunes has created other bizarre shapes in China’s westen deserts. Mysterious giant structures known as Yadangs were sculpted by flying sand. The wind brought other hazards to travelers in these deserts. Marco Polo wrote: sometimes the stray travelers will hear the tramp on the hum of a great *** of people away from the real line of margin, and taking this to be their own company, they will follow the sound. And when day breaks they will find that the cheat has been put on them and that they are in ***. To this day no one knows what causes the sand in some parts of the deserts to sink. No wonder that the travelers call this place fury of god and sea of death.

But the most severe problem is lack of water. The reason this place is so intensely dry can best be appreciated from a satellite view. China’s deserts are the farthest place on Earth from any ocean. This lack of water is what created the Takalamakan. An area the size of Germany covered in sand dunes through which the silk road ***, this is the world’s largest shifting sand desert. Most living creatures would die here, but the camel is uniquely *** for desert survival.

Its nose humidifies the dry desert air as breathe in, then dehumidifies it in the way out, conserving precious water. The camel’s thick fur keeps warm it at night while reflecting sun light by day. And its body temperature can rise to 60 degree Celsius before it even begins to sweat. With these adaptations it can go for days without drinking. For the camel trains travel through the desert is about moving between one life saving oasis and the next. When they finally do reach a water hold, camels can drink up 60 liters of water in 10 minutes. Without oasis life in takalamakan wouldn’t exist and travel would be impossible. But nothing is permanent on the deserts. The shifting sands on the extreme climate mean that this precious water sources can disappear. This is exactly what happened to the Aidingko Lake. The lake bed is the second lowest place on Earth at 154 meters below sea level. It is the hottest place in China with air temperatures recorded as high as 50 degrees Celsius and ground temperatures up to 80 degrees.

Yet not far from Aidingko is a surprise, a thriving human settlement in the desert. This is Turpan oasis and is famous in China for an unexpected product – grapes. But how on earth can a water hungry crop grow in such abundance in a desert? The secrete lies below the ground. A subterranean net of canals known as *** is used to channel water around Turpan’s streets and into the ***. But where has the water come from? The clue lies on the desert floor, in these lines of holes which mark the cause of the subterranean water ways. Over 2 millennia ago local people carved more than 3000 kilometers of these canals beneath the desert, diverting water from the distant mountains. Channeling water underground means less water is lost to evaporation in the desert heat.

In August the grapes are harvested. This rich bounty does not go unnoticed. In the lush *** yards of Turpan one animal lives thriving.

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-10 17:20

40‘ - 50’

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Red-tail gerbils are hardy desert creatures, but those in Turpan have never had it so good. Once the grapes are being picked, some are sold in market, but most are hung up to dry in special drying houses. This place is far too tempting for any rodent to resist. Red-tail gerbils are excellent climbers, but why bother when there’s plenty of bounty lying on the ground unguarded. Rather than suffering the extreme environment in which they live, the wild life and people of Turpan have found *** ways to cope with the conditions beyond the wall.

But not all desert community were as resourceful as Turpan. Between here and China’s westen borders lie the ruins of many great cities. In their day they were vibrant thriving places. But in the 5th century the silk-road’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Once again a princess is involved, she smuggled silk worm eggs out of China. The secret of silk was a secret no more. And China’s strangle hold on this lucrative trade was over. Even when Marco Polo passed along the silk-road in the 13th century, many of these cities had been dead for over 500 year.

But the silk-road’s most famous city *** to survive. Where the desert ends beneath vast mountain ranges, China’s west most point is only a stone throw from the borders of 5 central Asia countries. This is ***, where east is west. The silk that traveled along the silk-road ended here, where it is still traded today. *** is famous for selling everything under the sun. The local Sunday market is one of the Asia’s largest and most *** gatherings. But looking around the market it’s hardly to believe that you are actually in China. *** is a melting port of none Chinese ethnic people, Uigurs, Tgiks, Kilugiks, Uzbergs and many others. Here our journey heads northwards into China’s wildest places.

Leaving *** and the silk-road behind we travel into the Tianshan, or heavenly mountains. This great mountain range defines borders between China’s most northwesten province and neighboring Tagikstan and Kigstan. Its rejected peaks are almost as high as the Himalayas, forming a natural Great Wall. For much of the year it’s bound up in ice, but the glacier melt water allows ever-green forests to grow, are far cry from the desert south of here. These mountains are the gateway to some of the China’s most surprising people and places.

In the upland valleys a family of *** have been raising their life stocks all summer on the lush alpine medals. It’s in autumn and in a few weeks the winter snow will seal the mountain passes, so the *** have decided to break the camps and move while they still can. Turning their backs on the mountain pastures, they have many long weeks of travel ahead of them along well worn trails.

Their destination could hardly be more different from the heavenly mountain’s lush pastures. These paths head into one of China’s wildest and least known places. This is the Zhungeer Basin, an added land that lies at the westen most edge of the Great Gobi desert, the most northerly desert in the world. The Zhungeer is a place of surprises. This bizarre landscape is called the 5-colored hills. And though very little lives here now, the ancestors of tyrannosaurus rex once *** these hills, their fossils only discovered in 2006.

But the Zhungeer is not entirely lifeless. In the darkness a little Robrovski hamster emerges to search for food. They’re the world’s smallest hamster, the size of a pingpong ball. And they live in family groups around 10. Unlike *** hamsters cut migrate to avoid the severity of winter. They have to prepare for the difficult times by storing up provisions to spend the season under the ground. Anyone who has kept a pet hamster knows what an energetic little creature it can be. In a single night a hamster can cover an equivalent of four human marathons. But foraging far and wide creates a problem - how to carry the harvest back to its nest. Here the hamster’s famous flexible cheek pouches coming to play. They can stuffed full of seeds for carrying back to the burrow. Underground the family has special food chambers to store the bounty. The supply will have to last them through the lean and cold times ahead. Winter is on its way.

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-12 19:34

50‘ - end
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Within a few short weeks the five-colored hills are blanketed in snow, driven by icy winds from Siberia. Despite being at the same attitude as Venice, Asia’s northern deserts have no nearby sea to warm them, so suffer bitterly cold winters. When it smelts next spring, the snow will provide moisture for grasses and other plants to grow. Like almost everywhere beyond the wall, the harsh conditions force the people and wild life to keep moving to find enough to survive.

The *** have arrived from the Tianshan mountains to grace their animals on the **** in the Zhungeer. But the *** don’t have this place all to themselves. Their winter migration routes take them past the fense and closure in the desert. The horses on this side of the fense are domesticated animals like those belonging to Mongolians and ***. These are the last wild horses on Earth. Millions of them once race all the way to Europe, but now they barely number in the hundreds. For part of the winter the wild horses are quarantined to stop their mating with the *** horses. That way the *** of the rare wild animals can be kept pure.

There’s a problem however, the livestock and the wild horses compete for the same food. Many *** families and their flocks will pass through here over the winter. By the time the wild horse can be released from the pen, much of the best forage will be gone. When there’s so little to go around in the first place, it doesn’t take much for the situation to turn critical. Even in the least inhabited area in China, wild life and people come into conflict and struggle to survive.

Yet in this *** landscape a remarkable association between people and wild life persists, a tradition *** back almost 6 thousand years. 82-year-old *** carries on the tradition that makes *** famous throughout China. Every winter for most of his life *** has gone hunting with a golden eagle. This eagle is 5 years old, he was taken from the wild as a chick and raised by *** who trained it to return to him after each flight. He will keep this bird for a total of 10 seasons before setting it free. Foxes were once the favorite quarry for eagle hunters, these days they almost never catch anything. As in many part of China wild life is *** here as it used to be. When *** finally release this bird, it will be the end for his hunting days. Many of the younger generations of China’s nomads are moving to modern cities and leaving their traditions behind, their lives no longer ruled by the changing of the seasons.

Back to the northeast in mid winter, the Great Wall still dominates the landscape. Originally built to keep out dangerous and warriors, today it is little more than a curiosity. The Han Chinese whose ancestors built the wall now live in great cities like Harbin far to the north. Each year the artists of Harbin get ready for the special winter celebration. Giant block of ice from nearby rivers undergo a magical transformation. Tourists flock to Harbin from all over China to see these spectacular carvings and the ice city that has sprung up all around.

It takes 10000 people 18 days to construct this icy wonder land. It’s impressive enough by day, but the magic of this place only comes apparent once the sun goes down. Northern China can be a harsh place, but also a place of great beauty. The Harbin ice festival shows how the altitude has been changed since the Great Wall was built. No longer are the extremes of life beyond the wall merely to be feared, now it is possible to celebrate them too

$m22$

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Wild China - S01E04

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