China In My Shoes

Hi, my name is Juewen. I'm ten years old.

My nickname is Wen-Wen. I live in Shanghai.

Shanghai is the largest city in China.

It is an important shipping port.

This is the busy Huangpu River where the Yangtze River meets the sea.

SHE SPEAKS CHINESE

Shanghai has grown massively in recent years.

The city is now a mix of traditional Chinese buildings

and shiny modern office blocks.

With so many cars on the roads and so much congestion,

many people prefer to use public transport.

More than 23 million people live in Shanghai.

Shanghai is split in half by the river, but many bridges

and tunnels connect the two sides.

The Huangpu River,

flowing through Shanghai, forms the final section of

the Yangtze River before it opens into the East China Sea.

It's very deep.

It has to be, to accommodate the giant container ships.

Across from the Bund is the new commercial and financial

district, with its skyscrapers, swanky hotels and shopping malls.

The tall building with the hole at the top is

the World Financial Centre.

At the moment, it's the third tallest building in the world.

Juewen's cello teacher lives just up from the Bund.

Life can be pretty hectic for Chinese children,

especially those living in cities.

Their parents push them hard to achieve.

SINGING

In China, it's seen as very important to get a good job

and to keep the economy booming.

So Chinese children go to lots of after-school clubs to

develop their skills as much as possible.

Olympic Maths is very popular in China.

Children study hard and regularly take part in competitions.

Many children are keen to work as accountants and bankers

and it is thought that Olympic Maths will give them the edge.

"Yes, he does, of course... he likes James' garden's peas.

"and he likes peas out of the pod." TEACHER: Very good, OK.

TEACHER SPEAKS CHINESE

Shanghai is the largest centre of Chinese industrial technology.

The city is one of the most important seaports,

and China's largest commercial and financial centre.

Shanghai draws the attention of the whole world.

SHE SPEAKS CHINESE

I am ten years old.

Ruiqin and her family live in a small village in a mountain

valley in the Jijiang district of Yunnan Province.

Her village is called Chan'gou. It's a very beautiful place

in a mountainous and remote part of China.

The landscape is covered with terracing

to provide patches of flat farming land cut into the steep slopes.

This ingenious method of farming allows people to grow a whole

range of crops like rice, corn, barley, wheat and sweet potatoes.

The teacher sends the children on their way with instructions

to do their homework and respect their parents,

but also with a word of warning about fire.

There are always lots of fireworks around at festival time.

The journey between school and home is often too far to walk

every day, which is why so many children board during term times.

There are no buses, so walking is the only way.

The route is rugged and tiring, especially

when you have to carry everything.

But the views along the way are stunning.

The Jinsha River is deep and wide.

It's a headwater stream of the famous Yangzte,

and winds its way south through a deep gorge.

Jinsha actually means "golden sands".

Over the years, gold deposits have been found along its banks.

The ferryboat is a lifeline for people living in the remote

villages along the river bank.

Without it, they wouldn't be able to buy or sell goods or even

see a doctor if they were sick.

The trails and tracks of the rugged terrain are heavy going.

Mules and horses are still the best way to get around.

After a long journey home, everyone is hungry.

Almost everything Ruiqin's family eats is home-grown.

Like most people in the mountains,

Ruiqin's family are subsistence farmers.

They grow only what they need to eat well, and the chances are that

everything they have is grown within a five-mile radius.

Life can be hard here. Travelling any distance is tricky,

and growing enough to eat requires skill and perseverance.

But communities here are close and supportive of each other.

It's a healthy and simple life, but Ruiqin

and her family love living in such a remote, mountainous area.

HE SPEAKS CHINESE

Lijiang is located in the province of Yunnan,

in the southwest of China.

It's one of China's most famous ancient cities and home to

over a million people.

The area around Lijiang is where the Naxi people come from.

"Na" means senior and honoured, and "Xi" means people.

Wang Yuxi's family are Naxi.

First stop for Yuxi and his dad is the famous

Jade Snow Dragon Mountain, on the outskirts of the city of Lijiang.

These mountains give the people water,

wood and some natural medicines.

Scientists come from all over the world

to study the rare plants and animals found here.

The peaks are covered in snow all year round

and are home to the southernmost glacier in the northern hemisphere.

Not far from these beautiful mountains is Lake Lashihai.

The lake is also a good place for birdwatching.

Yuxi and his father visit the ancient tea route,

which begins near the lake.

More than 1,000 years ago, the locals started using these

special horses to carry the tea grown in the fields of Yunnan.

The mountain tracks of the tea route,

or Silk Road, as it's also known, were the best way to

transport not only tea but also sugar and salt for trading.

Traders visited neighbouring provinces like Tibet

and Guizhou to sell their goods.

But some of traders would trek for hundreds of miles through

mountains and forests until they reached

the markets of neighbouring countries Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

Yunnan has great conditions for growing tea -

fertile soil, lots of rain, never blisteringly hot

and never freezing cold.

Yunnan tea has a very special flavour

and is enjoyed all over the world.

Yuxi and his dad went to a local teahouse to try it for themselves.

Naxi families like Yuxi's are very close-knit,

which probably helps them to keep their traditions alive.

Yuxi is off to find his best friend.

A local Naxi wedding is taking place in Lijiang Old Town.

SINGING AND MUSIC

Yuxi's hometown of Lijiang really is a beautiful and unique place.

And it's no surprise

that so many people come here from all over the world to visit.

SINGING

My name is Ma Siduo.

I am nine years old.

I live in Yangshuo.

Yangshuo is part of Guangxi Province in Southern China.

It is a spectacular area, very popular with tourists

drawn here by the sights of the amazing karst landscape.

At the bottom of the valleys flow the rivers Yulong and Li.

Temperatures are generally warm

but it can get very wet and foggy in the rainy season.

SHE SPEAKS CHINESE

The whole area where Siduo lives is on a bed of limestone rock.

It's the limestone that forms the steep-sided mountains,

or karsts, and the underground caves.

Limestone is a porous rock and alkaline,

so when the slightly acidic rain falls,

as it does in the rainy season like now, the rock dissolves,

forming impressive stalactites and stalagmites in the caves.

A whole tourist industry has built up in Yangshuo. There are lots of

hotels and restaurants and bustling street markets

where farmers and local craftsmen can sell their goods.

School and after school clubs are a very big part of

Chinese children's lives.

The children learn about the history of maths,

reading it out loud as a class before they start their sums.

THEY CHANT IN CHINESE

SIDOU VOICE-OVER

TEACHER SPEAKS CHINESE

SHE SPEAKS CHINESE

The children exercise to keep warm,

as there is very little heating, if any, in the school buildings.

Siduo loves her friends and her school,

and her hometown of Yangshuo.

She is lucky enough to live in

one of the most beautiful parts of China.

My name is Memgke. I'm 11 years old.

SHE SPEAKS CHINESE

The town of Sandouping is on the banks of the Yangzte River

and has a population of about 35,000 people.

Memgke lives with her grandparents

because her parents have had to find work in another part of China.

The family, like many others in the region, were displaced

when the Three Gorges Dam was built.

Their farm is now underwater and they've had to find work

elsewhere, too far away to commute.

The Yangtze provides all the water the dam needs to generate

millions of kilowatts of clean and renewable electricity.

It is then distributed all over China.

But not everyone was happy about the dam. The people who lived by

the river had to sacrifice their homes and way of life.

The Spring Festival is also the Chinese New Year Celebration

and the time when the majority of Chinese people

take their annual holiday.

FIREWORKS POPPING

Even though they've lost their farm, Memgke's family work hard to

provide as much fresh, home-grown food as they possibly can.

The traditional Spring Festival feast takes a lot of preparation.

Memgke's parents are travelling home from where they now work

in Southern China.

It's 1,170 kilometres away and it takes 13 hours to drive.

Memgke and her family have lived through many changes

over the last few years.

The building of the dam has ensured regular water supplies

and clean energy for many people across China, but it has been

hard at times for the families now separated because of work.

So they really make the most of the times they have

to celebrate together.

Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing by Red Bee Media Ltd