At New Year, on the big screen in Times Square, New York, a Tibetan-style New Year greeting grabbed the attention of passersby. Behind it was a dynamic young team whose members are using innovative ways of presenting traditional Tibetan culture to the world. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Returning pastureland to grassland is an integral part of ecological restoration efforts in Tibet Autonomous Region. To provide recovery projects with enough plants to cover areas of restoration, a group of young scientists are working tirelessly at high altitude, searching for and cultivating suitable plants on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They are staunch protectors of the plateau environment. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying...
Located in the Xiong'an New Area in north China's Hebei Province, Lake Baiyangdian is the largest freshwater lake in north China. Years of pollution and drought had nearly dried it up. But thanks to the ecological restoration that was part of the new area’s development, older locals are happy to see that the clear and lucid waters they remember from their youth have now returned. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Cage culture fish farming used to bring decent incomes for local villagers in Panzhihua of southwest China's Sichuan Province. But the rising scale of the practice also harmed the environment of the Yangtze River's upper reaches. Encouraged by the local government, some villagers have switched to growing mangoes, making use of well-suited local conditions. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The paper industry on the banks of the Fuchun River in Zhejiang was closed down to develop the local green economy. Zhu Meijuan from Huanggongwang Village made use of a tourism boom in the area and opened the village's first guesthouse. Today, the beautiful natural environment there is providing locals with a sustainable development opportunity. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
In 2003, Changxing County in the coastal province of Zhejiang took the lead in implementing China’s “river chief system”, for which a single official is assigned responsibility for his or her own section of river or lake. Today, Qin Weijuan is among the many river chiefs across the country whose task is to protect its clean waters. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The last episode shows how Cao Xueqin, a man who’d witnessed the country’s best days and endured its worst hardships, managed to sublimate his experience into a plaintive yet beautiful elegy to a bygone era and its lost ideals. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Wang Xifeng is another vividly-portrayed female character in A Dream of Red Mansions. Though victimized in a patriarchal family for not bearing a son, she also, ironically, serves as a defender of the decadent feudal society. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Lin Daiyu, the heroine of A Dream of Red Mansions, is regarded as the most prominent female protagonist in classic Chinese literature. The mutual affection between her and the principal male character Jia Baoyu, both immortals in their previous lives, has become iconic in Chinese culture. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The Prospect Garden, a picturesque paradise, is the setting for much of the story in A Dream of Red Mansions. Mainly inhabited by bright, vivacious, intelligent and passionate girls, it’s a beautiful dream-like place. But just beneath the idyllic surface lurk the conflicts and vengeances of the real world. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
A Dream of Red Mansions is famed for its complex portraits of many women characters. Skybright is the most representative of the maids portrayed in the book. Restricted and stymied by the feudal conventions of the time, she’s ultimately doomed to a miserable fate. But against the tragic backdrop her vivid personality shines through. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
A timeless literary classic, A Dream of Red Mansions, is Qing novelist Cao Xueqin’s magnum opus. Full of sharp-eyed observations, it’s a novel that casts much light on 18th-century China. First published over 250 years ago, this story of a declining noble family is enduring cultural phenomenon that continues to attract more and more devotees. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The wild yak is one of the most resilient species to have evolved on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. With their intimidating size and numbers, even wolves give them a wide berth most of the time. But wolves are nothing if not opportunistic, so when a yak strays from the herd, all bets are off. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The plateau pika is the most common species in the Hoh Xil Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Unfortunately, the degeneration of meadows is threatening their numbers, and there are no other suitable food resources for them to turn to. As a vital link in the food chain, their survival could determine the fate of an entire ecosystem. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Every May, Tibetan antelopes from three different regions in China make an incredible migration towards Zhuonai Lake, their preferred breeding ground. Witness the miracle of life the Hoh Xil Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Aser music, the time-honored variety of Mongolian music, is on the verge of extinction. To study Aser music, Chinese pop band Hanggai is visiting several folk musicians of the older generation to perform together an Aser song. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Guitarist Zheng Xiaogang wants to be as free and unfettered as the famed Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai one day. In this episode, he follows in the footsteps of Li Bai and writes a song based on one of Li Bai’s poems as a memento of his trip. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
After his band split up, singer and songwriter Geng Qi suffered a series of blows in his life. Now he decides to accompany his friend to Tibet so he can sniff out creative inspiration. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Three young Chinese musicians have embarked on a music trip themed on Hua’er, a representative type of Hui ethic folk music in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The 12 Girls Band was a pioneering Chinese musical group formed in 2001. Now they plan to create a new piece of music incorporating a characteristically ideal sound found during their journey in Honghe, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
This episode takes us to Japan to look at the fascinating art of salt carving. Artist Motoi Yamamoto, one of the leading practitioners of this art form, is creating extraordinarily artistic effects from salt crystals. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Believe it or not, salt was once known as “white gold”, a substance so valuable that it could bring wars! This episode examines the ways in which salt caused tensions between two neighboring countries in Europe, Germany and Austria. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The history of salt is also a tale of fortune. In this episode we look at two families prominent in the history of the Great Britain and China, who, despite being oceans apart geographically and culturally, have one thing in common: wealth founded on salt. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Whilst most salt-production has now been industrialized, there’s a remote desert in northwestern India where people prefer the traditional way. For them, salt produced in the old way is the whitest and purest anywhere in the world. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Did you know that ancient Rome’s salt monopoly shaped a civilization whose influence was destined to echo down the ages? In this episode the crew embark for a place whose salt underpinned the wealth of the Roman Empire: the Italian seaside town of Cervia. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
This episode takes us to the so-called Gate of Hell, the Dallol Volcano in East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, where, in temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius, miners toil to ensure that reaching for the table salt is something most of us barely have to think about. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
The cause of China’s mission into outer space began from scratch far back in 1956. Since the 1990s, three scientists, all in their fifties, have been engaging on lunar exploration, all yearning to get to the lunar surface. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
There’s a language in the world that everyone can understand. Transcending culture, nations and race, it’s a language with the power to unite the whole world. Its name is Kung Fu! In this episode, we find out about the foreigners learning Kung Fu and how people like Shi Yanlei, champion of the fight clubs of London, are spreading the word of Shaolin Kung Fu far and wide. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Once a disciple walks out of the Shaolin Temple, he enters the “jianghu”. Obedience, courage and loyalty are the qualities required to walk in the jianghu. Here, everyone is looking for his place and everyone has jianghu in their heart. It’s exactly this spirit that has driven boxer Zhuang Shusong to spend two grueling years training in Thailand. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
Kung Fu practitioners devote so much time and thought to finding the ideal weapon for them. When you’ve put so much effort into developing the fighting potential of your body, you need a weapon as finely honed as you are! Which is precisely why Kung Fu master and carpenter Zheng Shuji has devoted himself to carving a Dharma rod from a piece of wood he found on a mountain. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying
