The Great Wall of China was built by the Han Chinese
to keep out the nomadic tribes from the north
They called these people barbarians
and their lands were considered barren
and uninhabitable
Northern China is indeed a harsh place
of terrible winters
ferocious summers
harsh 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 wildlife cope
with hardships and challenges of life beyond the Wall
For our troubled but drop-dead beautiful motherland
The northern limits of ancient China
were defined by the Great Wall
which meanders for nearly 5000km from east to west
The settled Han people of the Chinese heartland
were invaded many times by warlike tribes
from the north
The Great Wall was built to protect the 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 Manchuria
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 temperatures of 40¡ă below 0
Dense forests of evergreen trees cover these lands
and a rugged terrain is made even more difficult
by impenetrable ravines
We start our journey on a frozen river
snaking between China's northeastern most corner
and Siberia
The Chinese call it
the "Black Dragon River"
The people who live here
aren't exactly fearsome warriors
They are too busy coping with the harsh winter conditions
and they respond to the challenge
in some 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
that seem out of place in this icy world
Fishing boats and nets lie abandoned
a long way from open water
Underneather a meter of solid ice
swim a huge variety of fish
including 500-pound sturgeon
enough to feed a family of Hezhe for weeks
But how can they catch their quarries
First they must chisel a hole through the ice
to reach the water below
Then they need to set their fishing net
under the ice
a real challenge
A second hole is made
20 meters away from the first
and a weighted string is dropped in
Then a long bamboo pole is used to hook the string
and pull the net into position beneath the ice
After a few days
the nets are checked
These days,
almost nobody catches a rare giant sturgeon
The Black Dragon river has been overfished
like so many others
But even these smaller fish
are a welcome catch
Frozen with in seconds
the fish are guaranteed to stay fresh
for the wobbly cycle right home
The forests that lie south of the Black Dragon river
are bound up in snow for more than half the year
It's deathly silent
Most of the animals here are either hibernating
or have migrated south for the winter
But there is an exception
Wild boars roam the forests of the northeast
Like the Hezhe people
the boars find it difficult to gather food in winter
Staying close together may help them to keep warm
in the extreme cold
But there is another reason for group living
more ears to listen out for danger
Siberian tigers also live in these forests
But these days
only in captivity
There may be less than a dozen
wild Siberian tigers left in China
though there are many more in breeding centers
This enclosure of Hengdaohezi
started breeding tigers in 1986
to supply bones and body parts
for the Chinese medicine market
Trade in tiger parts was banned in China in the 1990s
and the breeding center
is now just a tourist attraction
The forests of northeast stretch to where the chinese, Russian and Mongolian borders meet
Here, a surprising herd of animals is on the move
The reindeer were introduced to china hundreds of years ago
by the nomadic Ewenki people
who came here from Siberia
It's late April
and the women are calling int heir reindeer
which are semi-wild
and have spent all winter away in the forest.
This a very special relationship
Each reindeer has its own name
and many were hand-reared by these women
finally reunited after months apart
They will now remain together until autumn
The Owenke women are anxious to check the condition of their animals
and to see which of the reindeer might be pregnant
81-year old, Malia Suel
is one of only 30 Owenke people still living their nomadic life
in these cold northern lands.
Almost all her fellow Owenke
have given up the forest life.
to settle in concrete houses in modern cities .
The reindeer herders are now almost as rare as wild Siberian tigers
There is about to be a new addition to the family.
The women act as midwives to the new born calves
helping to nurture them through their first precious minutes of life.
But the world around them is changing fast.
This could be the last generation this ancient partnership will endure.
This is hardly the image of the dangerous tribal people
that the Great Wall was built to keep at bay.
Along China's border with North Korea
is this region's most famous moutain
Changbaishan
Its name means ever white
and it harvest the world's higheat volcanic lake
Even in mid May there is still ice everywhere
but there are signs that the seasons are changing
Warmer winds arrive from the south
and within a few short weeks
Changbai Mountain is transformed.
Water begins to flow down the mountainside once more
replenishing the landscape.
It's June
and insects emerge to take advantage of the abundance of flowers.
The warm weather sees the arrival of migrant birds
Stonechats that have spent the winter in the south of China
return here to raise their chicks
With so many insects around
the stonechats may have several broods
Heading west from Changbai Mountain
the forests give way to rolling grasslands
The Great Wall stretches off into the distance
defining the southern limits of the vast Mongolian steppe
North of the Wall are huge areas of grassland
but one place on our journey is particularly significant
In the tall grass
a family of red foxes is raising its cubs
Today, they have this meadow pretty much to themselves
But it wasn't always the case
Eight centuries ago
this palce would've been teeming with people
Now these ruins in a field the short distance from Beijing
are all that remains of the great city of Xanadu
once the summer capital of China
Within these walls
it is said that the leader of the Mongolians
the mighty Kubla Khan welcomed Marco Polo to China
Mongolian warriors established the greatest empire in history
stretching to the borders of Europe
Feared of this worrior tribe is the main reason
the Han Chinese built the Great Wall
The cornerstone of the Mongolian supremacy
was their relationship with horses
This is what brought them such success in war
The Mongolian riders travelled at night
and rode with spare horses
so they could move huge distances strike and then retreat quicker than their opponents
At the heart of the Mongolian culture is horse racing
The annual Nadam Festival held each July
is a chance for young Mongolians to show off their horsemanship
It's said that Mongolian people are born in the saddle
Even as children, they are consummate riders
Horsemanship was the core of the Mongolian success
as warriores in the past
and is central to their lives as nomads today
In a area of grassland know as Bayanbulak
families of nomadic Mongolians are gathering
The name, Bayanbulak, means rich headwaters
and they come here to set up temporary homes
to graze their lifetock on the lush summer pastures
The search for fresh fodder for their animals
keeps them on the go
and being able to move home so easily
with a real-life vantage
It takes only a few minuts for the Monolian family
to set up their yurts .
But Mongolians don't have this place all to themselves.
The rich resources also attracked a huge variety of birds,
Demoiselle Cranes
wading birds and waterfowl
migrate here from all over Asia
drawn to rivers and wetlands
fed by glacial melt water from nearby mountains
This place is known in China
as Swan Lake
It's the world's most important breeding site for whooperswans
and arguably mosquitos as well.
The pastures at Swan Lake provide endless amount of lush grass
for birds to nest in
and for lifestock to eat
It would seem that's plenty for everybody
but occasionally they can't get too close for comfort
800 years ago
the Mongolians were 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 the swans,
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 us halfway across northern China
and the grasslands are becoming hot
dry
and desolate
Wandering these wastes are creatures that look more African than Asian
These are Goitred Gazelles
skittish
and easily startled
When threatened by danger, they are as fast as a race horse
But in this intense heat
they favor a gentler pace
There is little standing water here
but the gazelles have remarkable ability
to extract moisture from dry grass
although finding enough worth eating
keeps them constantly on the move
Even out here, in the semi-deserts
the wall continues its long march
Here it's made of a little more than compacted earth
But with hardly any rain falling
it suffered very little erosion over the centuries
Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives building it
Yet it seems hard to believe
that anyone felt that these distant wastelands 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 years ago
legend says that the construction of the fortress
was so meticulousily planned
that 100,000 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 an even more formidable barrier
a vast no man's land of deserts that stretch westward
to the borders of central Asia
Jiayuguan fortress was considered
to be the last outpost of Chinese civilization
Beyond this point, lays utter desolation
China's largest desert, the Taklamakan lies out here
Its name has been translated as
you go in, and you never come out
This is a place of intense heat
abrasive wind blown 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 lured into the horrors of the deserts
because the Chinese had a secret so powerful
that it changed the course of history
The key to that secret lies in the distant past
Legend has it
at around 5000 years ago
a princess was walking in her garden
when something unusual fell into her teacup
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
come from a humble little insect
the silkworm
Silk moths lay several hundred eggs
and the tiny caterpillars that emerge
eat nothing but mulberry leaves
After 50 days of gluttony
they've grown 10 thousand times heavier
But this stage
25 percent of their body mass is made up of silk glands
In the process of turning into adult moths
they spin a cocoon from a single strand of silk
which can be over a thousand meters long
It was the legendary strength and brightness of silk fibers
that made it so sought-after
For over 5000 years,
people built great fortunes and mighty kingdoms
on these delicate threads.
And the desert routes those antient traders took
became the fabled Silk Road
The principle of extracting raw silk hasn't changed
since it's discovered
Harvested cocoons are droped into boiling water
which unravels the long filaments
These are then gathered and spun into raw silk thread
Here at Hotan, on the ancient Silk Road
silk weaving is still a cottage industry
dumbly old-fashioned way on wooden looms
For the ancient Silk Road traders
the problem was still how to get the valuable silk from the fortress at Jiayuguan
through the deserts to markets of central Asia and beyond
Those early travellers heading west on the Silk Road
were setting off on the worst voyage imaginable
through some of the most terrible places on Earth
Starting with the world's tallest sand dunes
strong winds whipping in from the west
load the sand into ever higher dunes
Over millennia
mega-dunes build up
walls of sands soaring to over 500m tall
camels are the only beasts of burden that tackle these monstrous dunes
Their feet are wide and splay outwards to stop them sinking in loose sand
The wind that whips the sand into dunes
has created other bizarre shapes in China's western deserts
Mysterious giant structures
known as yardangs
were sculpted by flying sand
The wind brought other hazards to travellers in these deserts
Marco Polo wrote
sometimes the stray travelers will hear the tramp and hum
of a great cavalcade of people away from the real line of march
and taking this to be their own company
they will follow the sound
And when day breaks they find that a cheat has been put on them
and that they are in an ill plight
To this day
no one knows what causes the sands in some parts of the desert
to sink
No wonder travellers call this place
fury of God
and sea of death
But the most severe problem was 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 Taklamakan
an area the size of Germany covered in sand dunes through which the Silk Road traversed
This is the world's largest shifting sand desert
Most living would die here
but the camel is uniquely equipped for desert survival
Its nose humidifies the dry desert air as it breathe in
then dehumidifies it in the way out
conserving precious water
The camel's thick fur keeps it warm at night
while reflecting sunlight by day
And its body temperature can rise by 6 degree Celsius
before it even begins to sweat
With these adaptations they 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 drinking hole
camels can drink up to 60 liters of water in ten minutes
Without oasis life in the Taklamakan
couldn't exist and travel would be impossible
But nothing is permanent in the desert
The shifting sands on the extreme climate mean
that these precious water sources can disappear
This is exactly what happened in the Aydingkol Lake
The lake bed is the second lowest place on Earth
at 154 meters below sea level
It's the hottest place in China
with air temperatures recorded as high as 50 degree Celsius
and ground temperatures up to 80 degrees
Yet not far from Aydingkol is a surprise
a thriving human settlement in the desert
This is Turpan Oasis
And it's 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 secret lies below ground
A subterranean network of canals known as karez
is used to channel water around Turpan streets
and into raving yards
But where does the water come from?
The clue lies on the desert floor
in these lines of holes which mark the course of the subterranean water ways
Over 2 millennia ago
local people carved more than 3000km of
these canals beneath the desert
diverting water from the distant mountains
Channeling the flow underground
means that less water is lost to evaporation in the desert heat
In August the grapes are harvested
This rich bounty has not go unnoticed
In the lush vineyards of Turpan one animal misses thriving
Red-tailed gerbils are hardy desert creatures
But those in Turpan have never had it so good
Once the grapes have been picked
some are sold in the market
but most are hung up to dry in the special drying houses
This place is far too tempting for any rodent to resist
Red-tailed gerbils are excellent climbers
But why bother
when there is plenty of bounty lying around on the ground
unguarded
Rather than suffering the extreme environment in which they live
The wild life and people of Turban
have found innovative ways to cope with conditions beyond the Wall
But not all desert communities world as resourceful as Turpan
Between here and China's western borders
lie the ruins of many great cities
In their day they were vibrant thriving palces
But in the fifth century
the Silk Road fortunes took a turn for the worse
Once again, a princess was involved
She smuggled silkworm eggs out of china
The secret of silk was a secret no more
And China's stranglehold 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 years
But the Silk Road's most famous city managed to survive
Where the desert ends beneath vast mountain ranges
China's westernmost point is only a stone's throw from the borders of five central Asian countries
This is Kashgar where east meets west
The silk that travelled along the Silk Road ended up here where it is still traded today
Kashgar is famous for selling everything under the sun
The local Sunday market
is one of Asia's largest and most exuberant gatherings
But looking around the market
it's hard to believe you are actually in China
Kashgar is a melting pot of non-Chinese ethnic people
Uyghurs, Tajiks, Kirghiz, Uzbeks and many others
Here, our journey heads northwards
into one of China's wildest places
Leaving Kashgar and the Silk Road behind
we travel into the Tianshan
or heavenly mountains.
This great mountain range defines the border
between China's most northwestern province
and neighboring Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
Its majestic peaks are nearly as high as the Himalayas
Forming a natural great wall
For much of the year it's bound up in ice
But the glacial melt water allows evergreen forests to grow
a far cry from the desert south of here
These mountains are the gateway
to some of China's most surprising people and places
In the upland valleys
a family of Kazakhs has been grazing their livestock all summer
on the lush alpine meadows
It's autumn
in a few weeks' time, winter snows will seal the mountain passes
So the Kazakhs have decided
to break camp 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
The 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 Zhunge'er Basin
an added land
that lies at the westernmost edge of the great Gobi desert
the most northerly desert in the world
the Zhunge'er is a place of surprises
This bizarre landscape is called the
and though very little lives here now
the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex
once roamed these hills
Their fossils only discovered in 2006
But the Zhunge'er is not entirely lifeless
In the darkness a little Roborovski's Hamster emerges to search for food
They're the world's smallest hamsters
the size of a ping-pong ball
and they live in family groups around ten
Unlike the Kazakhs hamsters cut migrate to avoid the severity of winter
They have to prepare for difficult times by storing up provisions
to spend the season underground
Anyone who has kept a pet hamster
knows what an energetic little creature it can be
In a single night
a hamster may cover the 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 come into play
They can be 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
trough the lean and cold times ahead
Winter is on its way
Within a few short weeks
the five colored hills are blanketed in snow
driven by icy winds from Siberia
Despite being at the same latitude as Venice
Asia's northern deserts have no nearby sea to warm them
and so suffer bitterly cold winters
When it melts next spring
the snow will provide moisture for grasses and other plants to grow
Like almost everywhere beyond the wall
the harsh conditions force people and wildlife
to keep moving to find enough to survive
The Kazakhs have arrived from the Tianshan Mountains
to graze their animals on the meagar pickings in the Zhunge'er
But the Kazakhs don't have this place all to themselves.
Their winter migration routes take them passed
the fence enclosure in the desert.
The horses on this side of the fence
arent domestic animals like those belonging to the Mongolians and Kazakhs
These are the last wild horses on Earth
Millions of them once screeched 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 Kazakh's horses
That way, the gene pool of the rare wild animals can be kept pure
There is a big problem, however
The live stock and the wild horses compete for the same food
Many Kazakhs families and their flocks
will pass through here over the winter
By the time the wild horses can be released from the pen
Much of the best forage will be gone
When there are so little to go around
it doesn't take much for the situation to turn critical
Even in the least inhabited parts of China
wildlife and people come into conflict in the struggle to survive
Yet in this barren landscape
a remarkable association between people and wildlife persists
A tradition harking back almost 6000 years
Eighty-two year old Reya carries on a tradition
that has made the Kazakhs famous throughout China
Every winter for most of his life
Reya has gone hunting with a golden eagle
This eagle is around 5 years old
it was taken from the wild as a chick
and raised by Reya
who trained it to return to him after each flight
He will keep this bird for a total of ten seasons
before setting it free
Foxes were once the favorite quarry for the eagle hunters
These days they almost never catch anything
As in many parts of China
wildlife is far scarcer here than it used to be
When Reya finally releases this eagle
it will be the end of its hunting days
Many of the younger generation of China's nomads
are moving to modern cities on leaving their traditions behind
Their lives no longer ruled by the changing of the seasons
Back in the northeast in mid winter
the Great Wall still dominates the landscape
Originally built to keep out dangerous warriors
today it's a 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 a special winter celebration
Giant blocks of ice from nearby rivers
undergo a magical transfermation
Tourists flock to Harbin from all over China
to see the spectacular carvings
and the ice city that has sprung up all around
It takes 10 000 people 18 days
to construct this icy wonderland
It's impressive enough by day
but the magic of this place only becomes 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 attitudes have 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