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00:02China, industrial powerhouse and urban giant, but beyond the familiar images of bristling
00:11skylines and busy streets is a different China. This is a land of extremes, a land of great
00:25natural beauty, a land where resourceful people have built extraordinary lives
00:35against the odds, the hunters, the gatherers
00:50and the craftsmen of China.
01:03On this journey of discovery, we plumb deep into a remarkable, mysterious and hidden world.
01:17Get ready to enter Secret China.
01:29In this episode of Secret China, we journey to the outer edges of this vast nation.
01:39And discover people still living China's ancient skills and traditions.
01:49Across four remote communities, we find a new generation picking up the baton from the one before.
01:58Hoping to ensure their way of life still endures in the 21st century.
02:05But it isn't easy.
02:07In Sichuan, the woodsmen of the biggest ancient bamboo forest still remaining in China
02:13try to balance new ways of making a living with maintaining the tranquil rhythms of the forest.
02:27At China's northernmost tip, a Mongolian herdsman struggles through another ferocious winter
02:35on this harsh and stunning landscape, eager to live a life worthy of his people's warrior past.
02:53In Zhejiang province, meet the last of the silkworm cultivators,
02:58who lovingly produces silk thread in a way that's barely changed here for at least a thousand years.
03:12Hainan Island, off the southeast coast of China.
03:17Home to over eight million people.
03:26Along its twelve hundred kilometres of coastline, life hums with a bustling fishing industry,
03:34which feeds vibrant markets.
03:41Tourists flock here for the stunning beaches and tropical climate.
03:47But Hainan has a hidden side.
03:54Head deep into the mountains and forests of its centre,
03:59and there are isolated villages.
04:01Like this one.
04:03Tianlong.
04:06Home to a community of ethnic Miao people.
04:12Despite the modern buildings and clothing, this is a community steeped in traditions that date back more than 2,000
04:19years.
04:23Miao people are famed for their ability to hunt,
04:27and to survive on the fruits of South China's tropical forests.
04:32Today, thirteen-year-old Jiala is learning the art of the crossbow from his grandfather, the village chief, Laodong.
05:00Miao Deng makes simple, traditional bows, which are very powerful in the right hands.
05:14Jiala will need to be accurate, because the main prey the Miao people in this region hunt are small, quick,
05:22and elusive.
05:31Jiala and his friends are keen to head off on their own hunting trip.
05:38So Laodong gathers them together to teach them how to make another legendary Miao hunting device.
05:58He's using bamboo from the surrounding forest to fashion an ingenious trap for catching small prey.
06:08A ์ฌ์'s
06:08just like to scent.
06:10For now, the documents are done.
06:19Again, for me, I'm collecting .
06:22You live and show me really fast.
06:31Tianlong village is one of a cluster in central Hainan, home to 60,000 Miao people, descendants
06:38of those who migrated to the island in the 1500s.
06:45Those first settlers brought with them hunting traditions which Laodong inherited and now
06:50seeks to pass on to the next generation.
07:18With the lesson over, the youngsters are eager to put their weapons to the test.
07:22Away from the gaze of adults.
07:27But their mouse prey is very shy.
07:35They know the best place to find them is in the dark crevices and caves high in the limestone
07:40ridge that looms over the village.
07:46But before the kids get to hunt, they face a perilous climb up through this dense jungle landscape.
08:07A thousand kilometres northwest of Hainan Island, in Sichuan province, is Xunanjuhai, a place
08:14unique in China.
08:25From above, this looks like any forest.
08:28But look a little closer.
08:32And it becomes clear this is something special.
08:40It's the largest natural bamboo forest in the country.
08:47The Xunan Bamboo Sea.
09:07It's December, and the damp, cool winter hangs in the air.
09:16But the forest does not lie silent.
09:26For almost 3,000 years, bamboo has sustained the villagers here, providing a myriad of livelihoods.
09:37Kuan Yung Kong and his son, Jun, spend their winters felling the mature moso bamboo plants that
09:44soar more than 30 metres high and grow at a staggering 10 centimetres per day.
09:51And I think, at the respectful, a lot of people are thinking about it.
10:04It's usually daytime kalau,12 kuไธ็ฅ้.
10:06One, 5 or 6, 7 teriyaki.
10:07Anhandan man's bedtime in this year.
10:08A few days, we used to feed food, and use a lot of chicken plants.
10:10At that time, 10 years of the House, they used to have time to feed it for a suisse.
10:13We used to feed the rice.
10:15Anhandan man's sleep and serve food, and they used to feed it for a disaster.
10:15A few days, and a few days later, we used to feed it.
10:20The Guan family are responsible for a section of forest
10:24they've been allocated on a 30-year cycle.
10:28They cut bamboo that's more than five years old
10:31and so is solid enough to be used in building
10:33and to be fashioned into furniture.
10:40Mountainous Sichuan province suffers strong earthquakes.
10:45Maintaining the bamboo forest,
10:46which stabilises the hillsides, is very important.
10:55Mosso, or tortoiseshell bamboo, is particularly special.
10:59It has great tensile strength, making it perfect for building.
11:03It also produces a culinary delicacy.
11:11From October to December,
11:13bamboo sprout new shoots under the soil.
11:16These large, juicy shoots are the basis for the region's signature dish.
11:27They're never easy to find,
11:29but Yung Kang has a practised eye.
11:40He's looking for bamboos between one and two years old
11:43because they produce the most succulent shoots.
12:06Yung Kang needs to work out where the roots from this young tree run.
12:11new shoots sprout from the healthiest roots.
12:19Yung Kang thinks he's found a promising one,
12:22a bright green root.
12:50Next, he works delicately to expose the sprouting
12:57chute, then carefully pops it from the root.
13:15They've found a fertile area to dig, but the first few chutes are smaller than the one
13:20kilogram size they're looking for.
13:27Eventually their persistence pays off, and they unearth a prized chute to add to today's
13:33modest harvest.
13:37In days gone by, Jung-kun would have toiled under a daily pressure to keep his basket
13:43full of chutes to sell on and provide for his family.
13:50But times are changing in the Bamboo Sea.
13:55His son, Jung, is keen to pioneer new ways to make Bamboo pay the bills.
14:04Even though this could change the life of their forest community forever.
14:17Travel north to Houlen Baer, one of Inner Mongolia's great wild prairies.
14:31This is a place of stark majesty, famed for its vibrant green grasslands in summer.
14:40But in December, the low winter sun struggles to drive the mercury higher than minus 30 degrees.
14:56The nomadic herders who roam this land with their sheep, cattle and horses must do so year round.
15:1327-year-old shepherd Helen Baer is preparing his camel for another grueling day.
15:25Like every day, he's heading onto the plains to feed his flock of sheep with hay he stockpiled
15:30in the summer months.
15:33Helen has lived his whole life travelling these prairies, because he's one of the region's
15:38ancient Houlen Baer herdsmen.
15:55His flock of sheep have been huddled together throughout the night.
16:00Their thick coats and large fat stores keeping them warm in this harsh climate.
16:10This year, Helen has worked hard to keep feed stocks high, because last year's bitter winter
16:16saw temperatures of minus 50 degrees drive his flock to the brink.
16:24It's not our work.
16:28It's not our time.
16:30The 12th century is very distant.
16:31It's our country.
16:35It's not our planet.
16:37The 18th century has stayed in the bush of per directly.
16:45It's our own country.
16:46But it's our country.
16:48We have to deal with the great defenders of the people who are 500 citizens.
17:04Herlin grew up in a yurt, where his mother still lives.
17:14These incredible tents are perfect for the nomadic life of the herdsmen of the steppes.
17:24Made of felt, stretched over light wooden slats, they can be put up or taken down in less than an
17:30hour.
17:36Herlin's wife, Eon, is here to help his mother cook.
17:44Meat stays fresh for a long time, when you essentially live in a huge freezer.
17:52Eon, too, grew up here.
17:55But unlike Herlin, she hasn't spent her life migrating across the prairies.
18:00She still feels the pull of this incredible landscape, though.
18:27Since she married Herlin, Eon has divided her time between the prairies and her life as a teacher.
18:34Herlin is here in town.
18:49But this winter, there is little comfort here for Herlin.
18:53It's warmer than last year, but there has been so little snow, he's got a new problem.
18:59There's simply not enough for his animals to drink.
19:08Now he must head out in search of fresh water, just to keep his flocks alive.
19:40In Qianlong village in the heart of Hainan Island, 13-year-old Jiala and his friends are adventuring into the
19:47wild, rocky forests behind their village to hunt.
19:59They're armed with traps and crossbows made from bamboo, exactly the same way their meow ancestors did.
20:13This path only carries them so far.
20:20Their ultimate destination towers above them.
20:49And there's only one way to get there.
21:07Up, a precarious ladder of ancient tree roots that cling on to soil in the cliffs' cracks.
21:22Waiting for them at the summit is a beautiful jagged outcrop of weathered limestone known as a stone forest.
21:37The rock was formed more than 250 million years ago when the land lay below a shallow tropical ocean.
21:47Then, once exposed to the atmosphere, water attacked the natural straight faults in the surface, creating huge pillars of sharp
21:55rock separated by deep gullies.
21:58...
22:01..
22:01...
22:01.
22:04I'm very new, baby.
22:29Beyond the stone forest are the gullies, which the children know are their perfect hunting ground.
22:38If they can just find the holes where mice like to hide.
23:00Remembering his grandfather's instructions to push the bamboo spike deep into the earth,
23:05Jiala delicately positions and then primes the trap.
23:17By hunting this way, the four children are following in the footsteps of dozens of generations of Meow people.
23:28Now they must wait and see what their traps will catch.
23:50In Zhejiang province in eastern China lies the old town of Nanshun.
24:02Elegant buildings and bridges hint at the bygone prosperity this 700-year-old town forged on the back of one
24:10of China's most exquisite creations.
24:13Silk.
24:18First spun and woven in this region nearly 5,000 years ago, Chinese silk was worn by Roman aristocrats and
24:27Persian royalty.
24:27It continues to dazzle as one of China's great exports.
24:34From Beijing to London, catwalks shimmer with the latest silk couture.
24:46Despite a raw cost 20 times that of cotton, designers from around the world love to work with this uniquely
24:53delicate material.
24:57125,000 tons of silk are produced every year, two-thirds of which are made in China.
25:07But Nanshun's glory days as a silk powerhouse are on the wane.
25:1469-year-old Gu Ming Chi is one of the last of the silkworm farmers who still preserves the tradition
25:20that built Nanshun.
25:28It's May, and Gu's busiest week of the year.
25:33Helped by his daughter-in-law, Yung Yan, Gu is tending to his farm of 30,000 extraordinary creatures.
25:44An army of silkworms.
25:49These tiny creatures single-handedly power a global industry.
25:57Any day now, the silkworms, which are in fact the caterpillar of the silk moth,
26:01will bed down and spin themselves a silk cocoon and deliver Gu his harvest for the year.
26:15Each day, these eating machines consume their own body weight in mulberry leaves.
26:20They'll die if they eat anything else.
26:26So Gu is kept busy travelling twice a day to harvest fresh leaves to feed his army.
26:38Ceri culture, or the cultivation of silkworms, has remained broadly the same throughout its 5,000-year history.
26:45And that includes the farmers' daily forages into their mulberry bushes to gather fresh food.
26:58The leaves are transported still on their branches to keep them in the freshest possible condition on the journey back.
27:10Keeping silkworms fed is one thing, but Gu's real skill is his ability to judge exactly when they're ready to
27:17cocoon.
27:20Back at the farm, Gu heads in to check up on this year's crop of caterpillars as they near maturity.
27:30They're turning whiter in shade, the sign Gu has been waiting for.
27:4750 years as a breeder has honed Gu's instinct for knowing exactly when to transfer the worms so the next
27:54crucial stage in their evolution can take place.
28:00Tonight, though, he's worried.
28:02The temperature is dropping fast.
28:05Silkworms are delicate, and a sudden cold snap could be fatal.
28:20Back in China's biggest ancient bamboo forest, Sichuan's Xunan Bamboo Sea,
28:27forester's son, Guan Jun, is getting involved in what could be bamboo's most lucrative use of all.
28:35When tourists come to this unique forest, they often want to take a little part of it home.
28:42The root balls of the bamboo plants can be carved into highly unusual sculptures, if they have the right shape.
28:51Gwang Jun searches out the best from the forest, cleans them carefully, and then sells them to local sculptors.
29:08Gwang Jun is one of the best, with over 20 years' experience in this skilled art.
29:32His finest sculptures sell for up to 500 U.S. dollars.
29:39When summer comes, it will take its place on one of the village market stalls, tempting tourists with displays of
29:46stunning craftsmanship.
29:53Gwang Jun is one of the most popular craftsmen.
30:04At the Guan family home, built from bamboo, of course, Jun is getting ready to cook one of his famous
30:11bamboo feasts.
30:26The succulent bamboo shoot is fried and forms the centrepiece of a banquet of local meat and vegetables.
30:43Cooking a feast like this is good practice for the summer months, when the Shunan Bamboo Sea welcomes thousands of
30:50visitors.
30:56Jun has ensured his family benefits from the money visitors bring by converting their home into a tourist guesthouse.
31:21To Jun, it doesn't make sense to rely on bamboo forestry.
31:26Tourism offers a better way to make money.
31:53Tourism is bringing prosperity to the people who once lived lost in the bamboo sea.
32:01But they also know that the forest must continue to be cultivated in the traditional way to maintain what's so
32:07special about this.
32:09The largest ancient bamboo forest left in China.
32:16Silent, swaying bamboo looks the way it does because of the way it has always been cultivated.
32:23Their skills as foresters will be needed long into the future.
32:41Back on the unforgiving wilderness of the inner Mongolian prairie,
32:47Herder Helen Batar is caught in the grip of a cold, dry winter.
33:02Although a traditional Hulan Bear herdsman, he relies on some modern technology to help with the constant battle to nurse
33:09livestock through the freezing cold.
33:20This year, very little snow has fallen, so Herder Helen urgently needs to get water for his animals.
33:26He's relying on an innovative but physically demanding solution.
33:33Collecting fresh water ice from a frozen river.
33:43The winters in Inner Mongolia are so dry and sunny because of a fearsome weather system called the Siberian High.
33:53Every autumn, a huge high pressure cell develops over Siberia, which drags a vast stubborn swathe of freezing dry air
34:02over the entire region.
34:05Cloudless skies make for freezing, arid conditions.
34:12And this year is exceptionally tough.
34:21Herlin and his mother dig out the purest ice from below the river surface.
34:26Their aim? To collect enough blocks on today's trip to last their animals for seven days.
34:45Back at the pasture, Herlin has heated the ice to provide fresh drinking water.
34:58Herlin's thoughts can now turn to a big day for his family.
35:05A few miles across the plains, a wrestling competition is underway.
35:13In which Herlin's brother, Unabat, will fight.
35:23Herlin and his wife wear their traditional dress to attend today's Nardam festival.
35:28A sporting event with deep roots in Mongolian culture.
35:36The strongest local men pit themselves against each other in a unique brand of wrestling,
35:42dating back at least to the time of the great warrior Genghis Khan.
35:49Unabat has a reputation as a fearsome fighter,
35:53but he's nursing an injured finger, leaving his chance of victory hanging by a thread.
36:29Why will he furtherheid, just uzysk a hollocker neverwide?
36:29Laundran was the only item that I had.
36:31A new day dawns over the tropical interior of Hainan Island.
36:43Yesterday, 13-year-old Jiala and his friends laid ingenious bamboo traps in the stone gullies behind their village.
36:55Now it's time to head back into the forest.
37:05To discover if they've learned how to hunt, like true meow.
37:16Three of the four traps have worked.
37:28They've caught three mice in their bamboo traps.
37:32But Jiala is itching to try the crossbow his grandfather made him.
37:38He spots a move in the undergrowth.
38:03His training pays off, adding one more mouse to their haul.
38:18Around the campfire, Jiala and his friends enjoy the spoils of the day.
38:32Modern life has brought these children urban clothes, modern houses and education.
38:41But days like today serve to remind them of what makes them meow people.
38:48Their heritage as hunters and gatherers, able to live entirely off the rugged landscape of tropical China, lives on.
39:14In Zhejiang province, last of the traditional silkworm farmers, Ku Ming-chi is getting ready for harvest.
39:25Last night, he left his 30,000 silkworms on their trays for their final night of maturing.
39:35Despite a dip in temperatures overnight, the caterpillars look healthy.
39:41And Gu is convinced that today is the day the worms will start to spin their silk cocoons.
39:48How this process unfolds is incredible.
39:54First, Gu prepares the floor with a bed of straw where spinning will take place.
40:04With so many caterpillars to move by hand, it's a job that keeps the family busy for hours.
40:12When they are eating, they will go home.
40:40With the silkworms scattered on the floor, Gu fashioned straw structures which mimicked
40:46the best natural environment for the worms to spin, exactly as silkworm cultivators have
40:51done for thousands of years.
41:01The caterpillars get to work, secreting protein-rich liquid from a large gland which hardens into
41:10a silk thread on contact with the air.
41:26Finally, in a mesmerising feat of nature, they spin a tight cocoon in which they would metamorphose
41:34into a silk moth if left alone.
41:49Over the next few days, the straw bed becomes a forest of cocoons.
42:03But Gu won't let the silkworms inside complete the transformation that they've started.
42:15Retrieving the silk requires immense skill.
42:22The cocoons are placed in hot water, which loosens the delicate silk strands.
42:28They're just ten micrometers in diameter.
42:31That's one-tenth of the thickness of a human hair.
42:37Now, Jung-Yan can spin the delicate one-kilometer-long silk thread from each cocoon onto a spinning
42:44wheel.
42:48She combines ten strands at a time to make thread strong enough to weave.
42:56This painstaking process requires 6,000 cocoons to produce each kilogram of raw silk.
43:10Silkworm breeding does not make Gu rich, like his ancestors who built Nanshun.
43:18The last of the silkworm cultivators will be lucky to make more than $300 for this year's harvest.
43:24But it's not about the money for him.
43:30For half a century, Gu has repeated this process every silkworm season,
43:35helping preserve the heritage of a true Chinese icon.
43:52Two and a half thousand kilometers to the north, on the grasslands of Hulan Bear in Inner Mongolia,
43:58a crowd has gathered in sub-zero temperatures to enjoy a Nardan festival.
44:06Men from across the prairies are here to compete in a wrestling tournament.
44:13Herdsman Herlim Batar and his wife are here to support his brother, Unabat,
44:18who's one of the favorites to win today's competition.
44:34Nardan festivals celebrate the great Mongol warrior Genghis Khan.
44:39He used wrestling to ensure his men remained battle-ready.
44:45Hulan Bear wrestling has an extra violent twist,
44:48where fighters are permitted to kick each other's legs,
44:51whilst attempting to win, fire throws to the ground.
44:57It's time for Unabat's first bout.
45:00The wrestlers bound into the arena following a tradition where they mimic prancing tigers.
45:07He's about to find out whether his injured finger will stand up to the rigors of competition.
45:16Unabat soon takes the upper hand and easily throws his opponent to the ground.
45:23The next contest is tougher.
45:27But Unabat's strength and technique carry him through to a semi-final.
45:37With his brother nervously watching on, he tackles one of the other tournament favorites.
45:49Bouts can last an hour.
45:54But this one is over quickly.
46:04In the end, Unabat finishes third overall.
46:18As the weak winter sun calls time on another day on the Hulan Bear Prairie,
46:23Herlin returns to his animals.
46:34On horseback, in the vast expanse of Mongolian grasslands,
46:38he's carrying on a tradition that stretches back at least to the time of the Huns in the sixth century.
46:48It's a tough way of life, but one he's desperate not to let go of.
47:08Across China, millions continue to value their ancient heritage.
47:16In the mountains of the south, Miao minority children are still eager to learn to hunt the way their ancestors
47:22did.
47:28In the beautiful medieval towns of eastern China,
47:32silkworm cultivators tenaciously preserve knowledge that might otherwise be lost.
47:41While in the bamboo sea of Sichuan, traditional foresters protect a unique ecosystem.
47:50Away from the beating heart of modern China's bustling cities,
47:54a secret world still endures, shaped by rugged landscapes and the people who inhabit them.
48:08In the mountains of the south, Miao minority children are not sensitive to the way their ancestors.
48:08In the mountains of the south, Miao minority children are still looking for the kenpodens.
48:31The Hudson of the south to the east is the one of the hills.
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