China: Between Clouds and Dreams

Four children investigate the spoon-billed sandpiper's fragile existence. In Tibet, a trainee monk teaches environmental husbandry to nomads. A young girl fights to overcome her deafness.

Filmed over three years with unique access to the private side of China, the second in this series of five stunningly beautiful and extraordinarily intimate films continues the stories of Chinese school children, mothers and journalists investigating the effects of climate change across this vast country. The episode includes the first footage filmed of a snow leopard in China, but as a young Tibetan monk discovers, its habitat is threatened by a planned dam on the Yangtze river. Four schoolchildren investigate why people in their town are suffering from mystery illnesses and a young mother takes on the might of a factory in her town which she believes is causing cancer amongt its inhabitants.

The third episode in this series of five stunningly beautiful documentaries, filmed over three years with unique access to the private side of China, continues the stories of Chinese children, mothers and journalists investigating the effects of climate change across this vast country. On the Tibetan Plateau, novice monk Gama finds out how a huge open cast mine, 14 times the size of the City of London threatens to contaminate the headwaters of China's 'mother' river, the Yellow River. In central China, a courageous young mother finds out that a local factory has been releasing poisonous hydrogen cyanide. And on the coast, the four young journalists enter a competition, to highlight the plight of the endangered spoon-billed sandpiper.

The series of stunningly beautiful documentaries with unique access to the private side of China continues. In central China, mothers seek safer food for their children, as the dangerous impact of chemicals percolating through the soils and waters becomes ever more apparent, with tragic results, as in the case of 12-year-old girl Wu, who's suffering from bone marrow disease. Novice monk Gama finally makes it across the plateau to the largest Tibetan monastery in the world, and on the coast, the four young journalists involve schools across Asia in their increasingly ambitious quest to save the endangered spoon-billed sandpiper.

The series of stunningly beautiful documentaries with unique access to the private side of China reaches its conclusion. Novice monk Gama begins his studies at the largest Tibetan monastery in China. Filmed for the very first time, Wumingsi is a breathtakingly beautiful city of bright red wooden houses, home to 20,000 monks and nuns. Little Gama befriends Zhou Jia, a hugely charismatic monk dedicated to saving snow leopards. Through Gama's eyes, we witness a sky burial and the widespread poisoning of pika, the key animal of the grassland. In central China, reporter Xu leads his band of volunteers in the fight against 'electro fishing', the mass killing of fish with electricity. His story climaxes with an unprecedented attack upon him by the People's Daily. Beleaguered and alone, he faces humiliation. And from Beijing comes news of the results of the National Competition. Do the four young journalists have a chance? And what of China's future? Is there hope for the next generation?