Wild China Page #2

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there are landscapes where water

is surprisingly scarce.

This vast area of southwest China,

the size of France and Spain combined,

is famous for its clusters

of conical hills,

like giant upturned egg cartons,

separated by dry empty valleys.

This is the karst, a limestone terrain

which has become the defining image

of southern China.

Karst landscapes are often

studded with rocky outcrops,

forcing local farmers

to cultivate tiny fields.

The people who live here

are among the poorest in China.

In neighbouring Yunnan Province,

limestone rocks

have taken over entirely.

This is the famous Stone Forest,

the product of

countless years of erosion,

producing a maze of deep gullies

and sharp-edged pinnacles.

Limestone has the strange property

that it dissolves in rainwater.

Over many thousands of years

water has corroded its way

deep into the heart

of the bedrock itself.

This natural wonder is

a famous tourist spot,

receiving close to

two million visitors each year.

The Chinese are fond of

curiously-shaped rocks

and many have been given fanciful names.

No prizes for guessing

what this one is called!

But there's more to this landscape

than meets the eye.

China has literally thousands

of mysterious caverns

concealed beneath

the visible landscape of the karst.

Much of this hidden world

has never been seen by human eyes

and is only just now being explored.

(MAN SPEAKING CHINESE)

For a growing band of intrepid

young Chinese explorers,

caves represent the ultimate adventure.

Exploring a cave is like

taking a journey through time.

Ajourney which endless raindrops will

have followed over countless centuries.

Fed by countless drips and trickles,

the subterranean river carves

ever deeper into the rock.

The cave river's course is channelled

by the beds of limestone.

A weakness in the rock

can allow the river

to increase its gradient and flow-rate,

providing a real challenge for

the cave explorers.

The downward rush is halted

when the water table is reached.

Here the slow-flowing river carves

tunnels with a more rounded profile.

(MEN CHATTERING)

This tranquil world is home

to specialised cave fishes,

like the eyeless golden barb.

China may have more unique

kinds of cave-evolved fishes

than anywhere else on earth.

Above the water table,

ancient caverns abandoned

by the river slowly fill up

with stalactites and stalagmites.

Stalactites form as trickling water

deposits tiny quantities of rock

over hundreds or thousands of years.

Stalagmites grow up where

lime-laden drips hit the cave floor.

Oi!

Whoo-hoo!

So far, only a fraction of China's caves

have been thoroughly prospected

and cavers are constantly discovering

new subterranean marvels,

many of which are subsequently

developed into commercial show caves.

Finally escaping the darkness,

the cave river and its human explorers

emerge in a valley

far from where their journey began.

For now, the adventure is over.

Rivers which issue from caves

are the key to survival

in the karst country.

This vertical gorge in Guizhou Province

is a focal point for

the region's wildlife.

This is one of

the world's rarest primates,

Franois' langur.

In China they survive

in just two southern provinces,

Guizhou and Guangxi,

always in rugged limestone terrains.

Like most monkeys,

they are social creatures

and spend a great deal of time

grooming each other.

Langurs are essentially vegetarian

with a diet of buds,

fruits and tender young leaves.

Babies are born with ginger fur,

which gradually turns black

from the tail end.

Young infants have a vice-like grip,

used to cling on to mum for dear life.

As they get older,

they get bolder and take more risks.

Those that survive

spend a lot of time travelling.

The experienced adults know

exactly where to find seasonal foods

in different parts of their range.

In such steep terrain, travel involves

a high level of climbing skill.

These monkeys are

spectacularly good rock climbers

from the time they learn to walk.

In langur society,

females rule the roost

and take the lead

when the family is on the move.

One section of cliff oozes

a trickle of mineral-rich water

which the monkeys seem

to find irresistible.

These days there are few predators

in the Mayanghe Reserve

which might pose a risk

to a baby monkey.

But in past centuries,

this area of south China

was home to leopards,

pythons and even tigers.

To survive dangerous night prowlers,

the langurs went underground,

using their rock-climbing skills

to seek shelter in inaccessible caverns.

Filmed in near darkness

using a night vision camera,

the troop clambers along familiar ledges

worn smooth by generations before them.

During cold winter weather,

the monkeys venture deeper underground

where the air stays comparatively warm.

At last, journey's end.

A cosy niche beyond the reach

of even the most enterprising predator.

But it's not just monkeys

that find shelter in caves.

These children are off to school.

In rural China that may mean

a long trek each morning,

passing through

a cave or two on the way.

But not all pupils

have to walk to school.

These children are boarders.

(LAUGHING)

As the day pupils near journey's end,

the boarders are still making breakfast.

In the schoolyard, someone seems

to have switched the lights off.

But this is no ordinary playground,

and no ordinary school.

It's housed inside a cave!

A natural vault of rock

keeps out the rain

so there's no need for a roof

on the classroom.

Zhongdong cave school

is made up of six classes,

with a total of 200 children.

As well as the school,

the cave houses 18 families,

together with their livestock.

(COW MOOING)

These could be

the only cave-dwelling cows on earth.

(PIG SQUEALS)

With schoolwork over,

it's playtime at last.

In southern China,

caves aren't just used for shelter,

they can be a source of revenue

for the community.

People have been visiting

this cave for generations.

The cave floor is covered in guano,

so plentiful that 10 minutes' work

can fill these farmer's baskets.

It's used as a valuable source

of fertilizer.

A clue to the source of the guano can

be heard above the noise of the river.

The sound originates high up

in the roof of the cave.

The entrance is full of swifts.

They're very sociable birds.

More than 200,000 of them

share this cave

in southern Guizhou Province,

the biggest swift colony in China.

These days, Chinese house swifts

mostly nest in the roofs of buildings,

but rock crevices like these

were their original home,

long before houses were invented.

Though the swifts depend

on the cave for shelter,

they never stray further

than the limits of daylight,

as their eyes can't see in the dark.

However, deep inside the cavern,

other creatures are better equipped

for subterranean life.

A colony of bats is just waking up,

using ultrasonic squeaks to

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