48
00:05:12,691 --> 00:05:16,320 A campaign to eliminate
crop-raiding sparrows backfired 49
00:05:16,411 --> 00:05:19,483 when insect-eating birds were also targeted, 50
00:05:19,571 --> 00:05:22,210
causing an increase in insect pests. 51
00:05:30,611 --> 00:05:33,409 Efforts to make China self-reliant in steel 52
00:05:33,491 --> 00:05:38,246
resulted in 10% of the country's forests being felled to feed the furnaces. 53
00:05:44,811 --> 00:05:48,645 This had a profound impact on China's environment, 54
00:05:48,731 --> 00:05:52,406 with effects, in some cases, lasting until the present day. 55
00:05:56,771 --> 00:06:00,764
Mao's policy towards the countryside has been described in the phrase, 56
00:06:00,851 --> 00:06:03,411 \ 57
00:06:03,491 --> 00:06:08,281
Quite different from the ancient concept of harmonious co-existence with nature. 58
00:06:13,131 --> 00:06:16,282 As modern China
engages with the outside world, 59
00:06:16,371 --> 00:06:19,488 which of these attitudes seems likely to prevail? 60
00:06:21,091 --> 00:06:22,524 To find the answers, 61
00:06:22,611 --> 00:06:25,489 we'll travel to the far reaches of the heartland 62
00:06:25,571 --> 00:06:30,440
to see how its traditional cultures and unique creatures are faring today. 63
00:06:36,411 --> 00:06:40,165 Beijing has always depended on the North China Plain, 64
00:06:40,251 --> 00:06:42,970 a rich farmland
twice the size of the UK. 65
00:06:45,331 --> 00:06:49,244 The fertility of this plain derives from further west, 66
00:06:49,331 --> 00:06:51,208 from the Loess Plateau. 67
00:06:59,651 --> 00:07:03,690 The mineral-rich soil of
the Loess Plateau is incredibly fertile. 68
00:07:06,371 --> 00:07:10,159 People have lived here for thousands of years, 69
00:07:10,251 --> 00:07:13,084 hollowing their homes out of the soft soil. 70
00:07:13,611 --> 00:07:15,647 (WOMAN SPEAKING CHINESE) 71
00:07:17,851 --> 00:07:19,842 The caves might lack the glamour of Beijing, 72
00:07:19,931 --> 00:07:22,491 but people can survive here. 73
00:07:22,571 --> 00:07:26,530
Warm, secure, but best of all, well fed. 74
00:07:32,131 --> 00:07:33,769 (WOMAN LAUGHING) 75
00:07:35,451 --> 00:07:37,885
As a result of centuries of farming, 76
00:07:37,971 --> 00:07:42,203 the landscape has become scarred
with thousands of water-worn gullies. 77
00:07:47,131 --> 00:07:50,965 But this spectacular erosion has had an unexpected benefit. 78
00:07:52,811 --> 00:07:54,483
The streams which drain the gullies 79
00:07:54,571 --> 00:07:58,359 carry the fertile yellow soil into the plateau's major river, 80
00:08:01,731 --> 00:08:06,088 known to the Han people
as the Mother of Chinese civilisation. 81
00:08:15,411 --> 00:08:18,005 This is the Yellow River. 82
00:08:26,131 --> 00:08:29,282 Each year the Yellow River
carries billions of tons of sediment 83
00:08:29,371 --> 00:08:30,850 from the Loess Plateau 84
00:08:30,931 --> 00:08:34,367 eastwards to the crop fields of the Chinese heartland. 85
00:08:44,451 --> 00:08:49,206
Historically, the Chinese relationship
with the river has been uneasy. 86
00:08:49,291 --> 00:08:52,522
Sediment, building up on the riverbed, has caused the Yellow River 87
00:08:52,611 --> 00:08:54,920 to burst its banks periodically, 88
00:08:55,011 --> 00:08:59,562 unleashing devastating floods, resulting in millions of deaths. 89
00:09:10,531 --> 00:09:15,241
But when tamed with dykes and channels, the river's bounty is legendary. 90
00:09:20,571 --> 00:09:25,042 Even today, half of China's wheat
comes from the Yellow River floodplain. 91
00:09:34,491 --> 00:09:37,369 For thousands of years,
the sediment-rich Yellow River 92
00:09:37,451 --> 00:09:41,444 has underpinned the prosperity of the Chinese heartland. 93
00:09:41,531 --> 00:09:44,807 But increased demand for water by people and industry 94
00:09:44,891 --> 00:09:47,325
now threaten to run the river dry.
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