WILD CHINA - S01E06

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-20 22:32

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目前为止的最后一集

0‘ - 20’

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Season 01 Episode 06

From the eastern end of the Great Wall, China’s coast spans 14,500 kilometers and more than 5000 years history. This is the area which shows great contrast between China’s past and its future. Today China’s eastern seaboard is home to 700 million people, packed with some of the most dazzling high tech cities on Earth. Yet these crowded shores remain hugely important for a wealth of wild life. Now as the ancient traditions mingle with the new inspirations, is there any room at all for wild life on China’s crowded shores?

In northern China’s nature reserve, a pair of crowned crane have stayed out their nesting territory, in the *** of commercially managed reed bed. For centuries cranes have been revered in China as symbols of longevity. Their statues were placed next to the emperor throne. The cranes have cause to celebrate. This chick is sign of hope in difficult times. Red-crowned cranes are the world’s most endangered species. Over the last century, China has lost nearly half of its coastal wetlands, and most of what remains is managed for the benefit of people, not wild life. A few months from now this chick and its parents will face a long migration south to escape the harsh northern winter.

Their route will take them along a coast greatly affected by human activity. During their journey the cranes will be joined by many thousands of other migrating birds, all heading south, across the Bohai gulf, and along the shores of the Yellow and East China seas, some even reaching as far as the South China sea, in search of the safe winter haven.

The annual bird migration has been going on for thousands of years. Here at the Maojingping on China’s northeast coast, there is surprising evidence that people have lived here almost as long. 7000 years ago, members of the Shaha tribe carved magical symbols, representing significant elements in their daily lives. The packed leaves show wheat *** connected by lines with human figures, the first recordings of cultivation in China. Familiar with the spectacle of yearly bird migration, the Shaha people chose a symbol of bird as their totem.

Maojingping lies near the Shandong peninsula, an important wintry site for migrating birds. Even today there’re still communities along this coast line, who retain special affinity with their local bird life. Yangdengzhao village on the northeastern shore of the peninsula is famous for its traditional seaweed *** cottages.

On a chilly morning in early spring, Mr. and Mrs. Qu ventured at the first light, armed with traditional seaside accessories of bucket and spade. As they *** head down to the harbor, a flock of *** swans, known affectionally here as winter angles, are waking out in the bay.
The Qu’s and their neighbors search for tube holes in the mud of low tide, the sign of *** and *** hidden deep below. Wile gathering shellfish is popular past time, the major business of Yangdengzhao happens out of the sea. With the boat set out with Mr. Qu on board, the swans set a parallel course.

The whole of the bay is a gigantic seaweed farm, the men work all days cleaning and tending the kelp that are grown on ropes linked with a vast armada of buoys. The swans eat native seaweed growing on the surface of the ropes, rather than the valuable kelp, so they do no harm to the commercial operation.

In the afternoon when the wind picks up out of the sea, the works of swans return to shore. While the culture of seeking balance with nature goes back long in China, it’s rarely to see such harmonious relationships on China’s crowded coast. As the evening draws on, the Qu family prepare their evening meal of ***, steamed bread and seaweed. Leftovers are given to the children to feed the swans, it’s fun for the kids to provide the extra energy boost for the birds as they face another cold night.

The swans have been using this shelter bay for winter refuge for many generations. As long as the tradition of respect for nature persists, the remarkable relationship between Yangdengzhao and their winter angles look set to continue. Out of the Bohai gulf, northeast of the swan village, a small rocky island provides a quiet resting spot for migrating birds.

But Shedao island has hidden dangerous. *** vipers trapped here 6000 years ago by rising sea level have evolved a sinister lifestyle. For 10 months of the year, there’s substantially no food to eat on the island, so the reptile conserves energy by barely moving at all. As the sun warms up their rocky home, the snakes climb up into the bushes and trees. They aren’t here for sun bath. More and more vipers appear onto virtually every perch where a bird might land. **** Then the waiting game begins. The serpent’s camouflage is remarkable, but so are the bird’s reactions as this high speed shot reveals.

The birds will only stay on the island for a couple of weeks. But although the snakes have been starving for months, their only hope of bagging a meal is to be patient and sit tight. The slightest miscalculation *** make it left a mouthful feathers. The dropped meal is tracked down mainly by smell, the viper uses its fore-tongue to taste the air until it's close enough to see its quarry.

The final challenge is to swallow a meal twice the size of its head. It does so by dislocating its jaws, and positioning its prey, so the beak is pointing backwards. For the reptiles this time of plenty is all too brief. In a couple of weeks the migration will be over and the birds will have moved on. This could be the snake’s last meal for 6 months. But it isn’t just islands that experience the cycle of feast and famine. The sea too has its seasons, affect well known *** fishing communities along the neighboring coasts.

In Chuwang harbor, the start of a new fishing season provides the excuse for massive party. But for boatman Mr. Zhao, it’s a day of prayer as well as celebration. Zhao hopes by presenting gifts, and showing respect to the sea-god ***, he can help ensure a prosper and save here ahead for him and his crew. Meanwhile drums, fire cracks and fireworks reflect the ancient beliefs that loud noise will frighten off he dangerous sea devils and bad fortune. Occupying the center stage is representation of the sea dragon, mythical ruler of water and weather.

In the come of the evening, Mr. Zhao and his family light paper boat lanterns. Each flickering flame carries a wish to the sea-god***. The tradition passed on from parents to children over countless generations.

In China’s crowded coasts, fish men need to be extremely resourceful. Hauling in the nets is hard work, and so far there’s not a fish in sight, only jellyfish. Each year, millions of jellyfish are carried south with currents in the Bohai gulf. The ecological story behind this event is complex, but by no means unique to China. Jellyfish are fast breeding plankton feeders. In recent years human *** and fertilizers from intensive farming have increased the plankton bloom in the gulf, providing extra jellyfish food while over fishing has reduced their enemies and competitors. It’s a phenomenon that has become increasingly wide spread cross the world’s seas. However what is seen elsewhere as a problem, in China is perceived as an opportunity.

Back on shore, the jellyfish are transported by mule carts to nearby ware house where they will be processed and sold all over China. Four generations tuck in to a bowl of slice jellyfish, the recipe for a long and healthy life.

Leaving the Bohai gulf behind, migrating cranes, spoonbills and ducks are joined by other birds, all heading south in search for a safe winter haven. The birds’ migration route follows the coast of the Yellow Sea, down in to the Jiangsu Province, a fertile agricultural landscape with some of the last remaining salt marshes in China.

At Daxing a small salt marsh reserve is home to animal which is lucky to be alive. The Chinese see this mule as a curious composite animal, with a horse’s head, cow’s feet, a tail like a donkey, and backward facing antlers. In the west we know it as *** David’s deer after the first European to describe it. During the ***, stags decorate themselves with garlands of vegetation collected in their antlers.

Fierce battles decide mating rights. The females still have last year’s fawns in toe. They haven’t been *** by the time of ***, and band together in large crashes, only returning to their mothers to feed. This unique behavior helps to keep them clear off the aggressive males. Today there are just 2500 Milu in China. But it is remarkable there’re any at all. In the early 1900 Milu became extinct in the wild. But luckily some of the emperor herd had been sent as a gift to Europe. Those in Wolben abbey in England prospered, and in early 1980s, 40 of the deer returned to their homeland where they continue to thrive.

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-21 11:58

20‘ -30’

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The migrating cranes have so far travelled over 2000 kilometers southwards along the coast. Passing the Milu deer reserve at Daxing, they are approaching another salt marsh which will provide the perfect conditions for them to spend the winter. This is Yanzhong, the largest coastal wetland in China, visited by estimated 3 million birds each year. The crane chicks which were born only 7 months ago have now completed the first leg of a round trip which they will repeat every year. The hardy cranes can cope with winter temperature which may drop below freezing. However other birds like the endangered white face spoonbill are less cold tolerant, and will continue even further south in search of warmer climate.

At this point many of the migrating bird flocks are barely half way of their southward long journey. Ahead of them lies a new challenge, China’s greatest river, the Yangste, and the *** for a very different kind of migration. Each year millions of tons of cargo travel up and down the river, makes it the busiest water ways in the world. These are Chinese *** crabs, name for their strange hairy claws. They may migrate as much as 1500 kilometers, from tributaries and lakes to the river mouth where they gather to breed. A similar migration is made the giant Yangste sturgeon which can reaches 4 meters long and weigh half a ton. In recent years it numbers have declined dramatically, as its migration is *** by ever more river dams. But it isn’t just animals like the sturgeon that are in trouble, the entire Yangste ecosystem is being poisoned. In spite of being the subject of an ambitious cleanup plan, today the river is reckoned as the largest single source of pollution entering the Pacific Ocean.

Situated right at the mouth of ***, Chongming island provides a vital resting and feeding spot for migrating shore birds, and the place which offers welcome evidence of changing environment towards the Yangste’s beleaguered wild life. For centuries this coastal mud flats have attracted hunters like Mr. Jin who have homed their trapping skill to perfection to put rare birds to tables of Shanghai’s elites.

For 40 years Mr. Jin has used a net, simple decoy birds and a bamboo whistle to lure passing birds towards his net. It takes both patience and *** skill. But all is not as it seems, Mr. Jin, like many of the conservationists, is poacher-turned gain keeper, using his hunting skills to benefit his old quarry.

The stuff here at Dongtang bird reserve will measure, ring and weigh the trapped birds before releasing them unharmed. The information gathered by Jin and his colleges helps to protect over 200 different species of bird which visit the island each year.

Just south of Chongming island lies China’s largest coastal city, Shanghai. Situated on the major migration route for birds as well as river life, Shanghai is now preparing for an even bigger evasion. Barges loaded building materials constantly arrive at the city’s docks, feeding one of the greatest construction booms in the world. Last year half the world’s concrete was poured into China’s cities, all in preparation for the biggest mass migration of people in the history of the world.

In the next 25 years, well over 300 million people are predicted to move for rural China in to cities like Shanghai. The migration of people from country to city is being *** around the world. By 2010, over half of the world’s population will be urban dwellers. As night falls, Shanghai reveals its true colors. China’s fastest growing financial center, is in the mist of massive boom. With an estimated population of more than 20 million, Shanghai is officially China’s largest and certainly the most dazzling city. But there is an environmental cost. Shanghai residents now are using 2 and half times more power per head than their rural cousins. The city’s seemingly insatiable power demands current need the output of 17 energy stations.

South of Shanghai, the city lights gradually fade as we enter an ancient world. This is Fujian province, a rugged terrain, guarded by shear granite mountains, which have helped to forge and preserve some of China’s most ancient sites and traditional cultures. Towering above the coast, the 1400 meter high Taimiao mountains are known to the Chinese as fairy land on the sea.

转经筒 · 发表于 2008-8-22 19:42

30’ - end

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Moist sea breezes condense on the cool mountain tops, and combine with well drained acid soils, to produce the perfect growing conditions for acid loving plants, like wild azaleas. It’s also home to camellias, including the most famous of all, the tea plant. Similar conditions all along Fujian’s coasts, make this the treasure chest for China’s tea, the heart of industry dating back almost 4000 years. One of the most traditional tea growing culture is at the Kejia people.

Every morning goats are let loose among the tea terresis, the centuries old tradition. This seems surprising to give goats reputation for eating anything green. But tea isn’t as defenseless as it looks. Tea leaves are loaded with chemicals designed to repel browsing animals. It works on the goats who leave the tea untouched and instead eat up the weeds, fertilizing the tea plant with their droppings. The surprise is we human should find the same bitter chemical cocktail *** irresistible. Among the Kejia people, the tea growing is a family business. Women do the picking, while the men process and packet.

Mrs. Zhong belongs to a Kejia family that has lived on works for generations among this same tea terresis. The finest tea needs to be gathered quickly in warm sunshine, as this brings out the flavor enhancing oils inside the leaves. This sustainable industry has protected China’s finest landscape and one of its traditional cultures.

At the end of the morning’s picking, Mrs. Zhong returns home to drop off her tea ready for processing. This fort-like design has survived from the time when the Kejia people needed to protect themselves from the hostile local tribes. Each house has 3 or 4 levels designed to commandate 50 to 250 people. The ground floor houses the kitchen and the animal stock, with a access to a well for water. The first floor is used for storage and the upper floors are bedrooms. Some of these remarkable buildings are 800 years old and have survived earthquakes and typhoons.

Once enough tea has been gathered in, the processing begins. Turning green leaves into salable tea involves at least 8 different stages, including drying, brewsing, ***, sifting, squeezing and twisting, before the product is finally ready for packing. The Zhong’s village produces a little black dragon or Wulong tea, so called because of the way the twisted leaves unfold when water is poured over them. Tea plays a vital part on Kejia life, not only as a source of income, but also as a way to welcome visitors and bring people together. In traditional Chinese life even the simplist cup of tea is poured with an intricate amount of ritual.
In the past the Kejia people’s other main incomes came from transporting goods like the tea across the *** topography of mountains and river estuaries. Their route was suddenly made easily when in 1059 this remarkable bridge was built. Made from massive ten tons slabs of granite, it’s one of China’s less unknown architectural jams. Luoyang bridge has withstood earthquakes and *** tides. Known as 10000 ships launching, the bridge’s 46 piers have withstood time and tide for almost millennium. According to folk lore, it successes its jewels for far sighted piece of bioengineering. Oysters resided in the piers and ever since their concretions have helped cement the granite blocks together. Today oysters are still cultivated here in a traditional way by Huiyang women. Stones are stood in the mud flat below the bridge to encourage the oysters to grow.

Luoyang bridge is now mainly used by the locals carrying goods across the estuary towards the coastal ports. For more than 2000 years, coastal trade in China has depended on a remarkable and pioneering type of ship, known to us, as the junk. This working vessel follows a general design that has been used in Fujian for at least 600 years. It’s bows take the form of a beak with two large painted eyes, evoking the traditional sea ***’s belief that the bird’s image would help the sailors return safely like the migrants that return each spring and autumn.

Tea and other goods are stored in strong bow caps, each waterproofed and separated from the next to minimize the flood damage. This innovation introduced to keep the precious tea cargos dry, spurred on the improvements of not only Chinese boats but western boats too. The distinctive ring of junk sails allows easy handling in bad weather, essential along the storm *** coast.

Each year from July to November, up to a dozen typhoons, *** the Chinese word for great wind, head northwest towards China. Typhoons have become more frequent since the sea temperatures rise, aided by a globally increasing greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. But satellite picture has revealed a surprising twist, it seems typhoons can pull deep nutrient rich sea water up to the surface, causing plankton bloom which in term soak up large quantities of carbon dioxide. When a typhoon strikes, one of the best places to be is Hongkong harbor with its sheltered anchor ***. A center of international trade, the city is famous for it jumble of skyscrapers and its bustling commercial center. But there’s a site of Hongkong that’s less well known.

Behind the urban sprawl, lies a *** wetlands, which include the Maipou nature reserve. Managed principally for the benefit of migrating birds, the reserve maintains a series of traditional prawn founds, known as Jiweis, and their joining mangroves and mud flats. Every two weeks from November to March, one of the Jiweis is drained by opening up the *** gates. As the water level falls, birds begin to gather. Herons, egrets, and cormorants mingle with a far rarer visitor, the black-faced spoonbill. These endangered migrants have travelled the length of China’s coastline, from northern China and Corea, Maipou marks the end of the 2000 kilometers journey, during which the birds may have lost up to a third of their body weight. 400 black-faced spoonbills, a quarter of the world’s population, pass the winter here. At low water, trapped shrimps and fish become easy prey, a life saver for these endangered birds.
The Maipou marsh is part of the pearl river estuary, whose muddy shores are bound with crabs, worms and mudskippers. Exposed at low tide, the *** of mud *** attracts both waders and Jiwei birds. Here on the mud flats of inner *** bay, each bird has its own specific feeding zone, defined by the depth of the water, the length of its beak, and its feeding technique. Once refueled they ravel in synchronized areal displace.

More than any other place on China’s coastline, inner *** bay demonstrate that, with help resilient nature can still thrive even when boxed in and overshadowed by towering cities like Shenzhen. Another successful example of man’s intervention on the behave of nature can be glimpsed in the waters around Lantao island.

While the egrets make the most of the easy meal, other creatures have their eye on the fish men’s catch. Chinese white dolphins are estuary’s specialists. Found widely in the Indian and Pacific Ocean, this species is rare in China. The young are born dark grey, and become spotted as adolescents, finally turn in creamy white as adults. Though on some occasions, they may blush a delicate shade of pink. Three groups of dolphins live close to Lantao island, when the tide comes it, they move with it to feed on small fish or squid which travel with the currents, using the echo location to see their prey through the murky water.

They also use sound to communicate. But they face a deafening problem. The pearl estuary has become one of the busiest shipping channels in China, and the dolphins are constantly *** with the sound. New research suggest that they may now pack more information into shorter calls in a *** to be heard. Local conservationists have now set up a protected zone near Lantao island, so for now China’s wild dolphins are holding on.

South of Hongkong lies the South China Sea, studded with more than 200 islands and reefs. Potential reserves of fish, oil and gas make each one strategic, and the whole region has become a political hotspot as territorial disputes simmer between its many neighboring countries. The water itself is low in nutrients and would be poor in life if it wasn’t for the other resource that *** in the abundance, sunlight. In the shallows of coral ***, small jellyfish point their towards the sun. Like many animals here, they depend on the close partnership with microscopic algae, which turn solar power into food. The most famous of these relationships is the reforming corals, which provide the foundations of the sea’s dazzling ecosystem. Their branches provide shelter for a wealth of small and vulnerable creatures, many of them beautifully camouflaged. But the ultimate master of these guys has to be the octopus, not only be able to change its shape and color, but its skin texture too.

Where the reefs meet deeper waters, upwelling currents carry nutrients to the surface. *** fish swim out to gorge themselves on the resulting food, in term attracting larger *** fish to the reefs. *** prowl in dense packs. Giant rays sweep in on graceful wings to *** up the remaining plankton, which also attracts the kingfish. Growing up to 12 meters long, a whale shark is a gentle giant, and these days a rare sighting. As shark, smaller and larger, *** to supply the middle Asian shark meat trade, the fate of this fabulous creatures hangs on the balance.

As healthy coral reefs still survive in the remote islands, the situation close to the China’s coast is quite different. The waters of Hainan, China’s largest tropical island, have been fished for thousands of years. As the reefs become less and less productive, fish men from Tanmen harbor need all their resource *** to make a living. Dicing with death, they breathe air pumped through *** pipes, in the desperate bet to catch the last remaining sea life. Over the years’ increase sedimentation and the use of dynamite and cyanide means the corals close to shore are barely hanging on.

Recently the government has recognized that regulation is needed if the local fishery is to survive for the future. Fishing now is banned for two months a year to leave a chance for marine life to breed. One of the most important tropical habitats for young fish is mangrove swamps. In the past 40 years, 80% of China’s mangroves have been destroyed. But in Dahuazhou mangrove reserve in Hainan, a remarkable conservation initiative is bringing young Chinese volunteer together, to plant mangrove saplings in the glutenous mud. For many of these city-born students, such unglamorous work demonstrates their commitment to their country’s environment.

Like other heavily populated countries, China today is faced with a challenge: how best to protect nature in an increasingly crowded space? These wild macaques live in a tiny Hainan reserve where they are carefully managed and looked after. Most of the island hillsides are covered with tropical woodland, but there’re also flower *** where monkeys gather to feed. Each morning as the tropical sun heats their island, the macaques head down hill in search for somewhere cooler. And what could be more refreshing than the dip in a pool? To the Chinese, combining a wild life reserve with tourist development makes perfect sense. And the monkeys don’t seem at all unhappy with the deal. The question is where to draw the line. Like the rest of the world, China is still filling its way towards a harmonious relationship with nature.

600 years ago, people who lived here carved this calligraphy in the rocks, announcing it to be the end of the world. In recent years that word has undergone a massive expansion as tourists from all over China have discovered the delights of Hainan’s seaside resorts. In 2010 China’s total tourism revenue is expected to hit 75 billion pounds a year. While insensitive development could destroy China’s natural environment, well managed ecotourism can provide huge benefit for China’s wild life. The issues face China today, increasing pressure on resources, then living space and quality of environment, are those face us all.

If there’s any country in the world equipped to solve the environmental problems in vast scale, it has to be China, with its tremendous human resources and powerful political control. The pass it chooses will affect not just its own people and its natural environment, but the rest of the world too.

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esiway · 发表于 2008-10-16 13:17

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WILD CHINA - S01E06

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