My primary emotion on finishing the series is relief. Relief that we survived the perils of long overland journeys on dodgy roads, extreme weather (temperatures from 45° Celsius to minus 30°), 6,000-metre altitudes, searing sandstorm-prone deserts, icy mountains, rough seas, subterranean caves, foaming river gorges… And, of course, elation at having captured so many memorable sequences of dramatic landscapes, exotic wildlife and remarkable people previously unseen outside China.

Filming over 16 months, we made 57 filming trips to many of China's most inaccessible wilderness areas - in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, yunnan, gansu, Shaanxi and Heilongjiang provinces - as well as key wildlife and scenic reserves throughout a further 14 provinces and municipalities. Between us we clocked up something like half a million miles, shot over 500 hours of HD tape and became expert in the wielding of chopsticks and the amusement of small children with our inept linguistic attempts.

So what is China like? in the western media the predominant image is of a vast country (nearly 40 times bigger than the UK) supporting a quarter of the world's population (over 1.3 billion people) crammed into teeming cities surrounded by huge industrial complexes and intensivelyfarmed countryside plagued by pollution. The other thing we hear about China is that it is not a healthy place to be a wild animal - there is a famous southern Chinese saying, 'we will eat anything with legs except a table, and anything with wings except a plane' - and what doesn't end up in a wok is likely to feature in the ingredients list of a traditional Chinese medicine prescription.

The reality is a lot less stark. Certainly China is not a country where nature is flourishing, but nor is it a basket case. Compared to the UK, which lost most of its mega fauna as a result of human activity centuries ago, China actually isn't doing too badly. The world's most populous country still retains most of its iconic wild mammals: the elephant, takin, giant panda, leopard, snow leopard, black and brown bears, wild yak, wild Bactrian camel and even a few Amur tigers, though all are rare.

China's Natural Bounty

So what else does China have to offer to a natural history series? The answer is surprisingly impressive! China boasts the world's highest mountains, ranged along the southern margin of the enormous Tibet- Qinghai plateau; the world's largest shifting-sand desert (one of its hottest - plus part of its coldest, both in Xinjiang province); a varied coastline that stretches from chilly north Korea to tropical Vietnam; tropical coral reefs in the South China sea; steaming sub-tropical rainforests in yunnan; bamboo groves and fabulous temperate woodlands in Sichuan and the Qinling mountains; large areas of evergreen taiga forest; the grassy steppe lands of inner mongolia; plus the world's most extensive and finest karst scenery, riddled with mysterious caverns.

The country is home to 534 species of mammals - an eighth of the world's total, of which more than 100, including iconic species such as the giant panda, are endemic. China's birdlife is also extremely rich, with more than 1,300 species, and there are more than 2,200 species of fish. China's plant life is equally spectacular, with an amazing 32,800 species of higher plants - an eighth of the world's total - making it the third richest country in the world for plant life after malaysia and Brazil. many of the most beautiful cultivated plants in temperate gardens worldwide are native to China, including azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons, forsythias, clematis, dogwoods and polyanthus. Read more>>

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