BEAUTIFUL, A LOVELY SERIES!!!
Well, well, well congratulations to the BBC... They have outdone themselves yet again.
What with the lovely voice over, done by the brilliant Bernard Hill (and who wouldn't recognise that), to the beautiful photography, this really is an outstanding series (and not the rubbish that one of the other reviews put it)... So even though I haven't got it on DVD yet, I am seriously thinking if not for me then for my mum for her Xmas stocking, then I could borrow it once in a while...(MAYBE)

Should have ten stars!
This is an amazing DVD... if you dont watch it you really are missing out.. I never knew what a fantastic place China is... such contrasts. For me this out shines Planet Earth and Blue Planet..A world in one country.. I will be giving out copies of this for Christmas presents... an education very well done. Thanks BBC!

Makes the Licence Fee seem a bargain
Stunningly-good; brilliant, evocative, clearly-spoken narration; amazing photography. I am in awe of the quality of production and it makes a quite exceptional TV experience.

A fascinating insight
Wonderful imagery brings alive this amazing country,enough to make you want to visit and see it all for yourself !! Hope they see sense and release a soundtrack cd soon,the music alone is outstanding ! Sure it would be popular with China being the country of the moment !

Domestic China
In rather a departure from the previous informal "wild" series (Andes To Amazon,Wild Africa, Wild Caribbean, Wild Down Under), this 6 part documentary includes more of the life of Chinese peoples in both countryside and cites. The previous offerings divided up the geography into distinct biomes- plains, mountains, freshwater, seas etc. Here we are presented with a specific region at a time.

It still has stirring landscapes, engaging animals, dramatic music and Bernard Hill's lugubrious voiceover, but compared with previous offerings the actual wildlife photography seemed to be a bit on the cheap. If you compare the recent Life In Cold Blood which was packed full of technological wizardry, this documentary seems to have been done relatively cheaply. After all humans are a little more easy and predictable to film than wildlife. So we get an awful lot of tea plantations, fishing, rice paddies and tourist traps with boisterous monkeys. Was it the fabled Chinese bureaucracy that caused this or was it just done in a rush?

I was rather disappointed that there were very few shots of freshwater and marine fish compared to the other series- they didn't seem to have the services of a diver for very long- even the coastal episode seemed to concentrate more on cockle pickers and oyster gathering. The episode on Tibet was very telling as it gave rather a simple overview when compared say to A Year In Tibet- whereas we got a simple mention in Wild China the latter went into great detail about how hard it is to actually get a carrion bird to eat up a human corpse (the traditional "burial" technique)- you have to feed them the unappetising innards first or they'll gorge on the best bits and flap off.

So saying I still go all dribbly at Karst topography (that's a peculiar limestone weathering pattern which causes very tall steep sided hills as per episode one- wouldn't Derbyshire be improved if it only had the same climate?) and the spoonbill migrations to wildlife reserves around Hong Kong looks like a very good idea for a holiday. A beautiful series but not quite as good as the previous offerings if you were looking for "wildlife".

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