Full.Circle.With.Michael.Palin.03.China
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00:30Well, there it is, the coast of China, the big one, probably the most important and significant
00:49of all the countries of the Pacific Rim, and yet the one that's least understood.
00:54But we've got to try and understand it, because if forecasts are right, within the next 25 years,
01:01China is going to have the most powerful economy in the world.
01:05I still have that feeling, probably partly because of its recent history,
01:09a feeling of apprehension about travelling in China, a vague whiff of difficulty and discomfort.
01:15But I'm also deeply fascinated and looking forward to getting there.
01:24Slipping into China through the port of Qingdao is like coming in through the back door.
01:35If you've taken the overnight ferry from Korea, as I have,
01:39then this is where you will first set foot in a country that is home to one quarter of the world's population.
01:54The first surprise is how big the place is.
01:57Qingdao has grown from a seaside resort to a city the size of London in just 20 years,
02:03and there are no signs of it stopping there.
02:07The second surprise is the welcome guesthouse, which turns out to be a Bavarian castle.
02:14It was built for the governor 90 years ago, when Qingdao was a German colony.
02:20The spirit of Wagner lingers in the woodwork, and the Chinese seem to rather like it.
02:27Communist leaders were especially keen if the wall plaques are anything to go by.
02:33When Mao Zedong wanted to get away to the seaside, this is where he came.
02:39When Mao Zedong wanted to get away to the seaside, this is where he came, and this is the room he stayed in.
02:46It's just this, isn't it?
02:49Thank you very much.
03:05A little ante room for drinking tea and planning revolutions.
03:10And through here, another little room, leading to another huge room, the state bathroom.
03:21This is wonderful.
03:23A mixture of simple socialist taste and German baroque results in a very small loo.
03:34The old colonial town has survived remarkably unscathed,
03:38maybe because the party leaders liked it so much.
03:45Modern China has been grafted onto Germany without anybody really noticing.
03:55As soon as I've unpacked, I take a walk to get my first feel of life on Chinese streets.
04:01That's interesting.
04:03Blood donors, organ donors.
04:09The sign doesn't help much, but the sign language tells me that mass massage is on offer.
04:24Every single masseur turns out to be blind.
04:32Do you speak any English?
04:35Do you speak any English?
04:39That's lovely.
04:41Communication isn't really necessary.
04:44Does it through the fingers?
04:49It's like it's stronger all the time.
04:52Pressure's up.
04:57When you walk, collapse on you.
05:00Ah, that's nice. That's better.
05:03Oh.
05:09Turn me out on the street in a minute.
05:12Public massage is clearly not unusual in China, and I come away converted.
05:19Walking on air. Walking on air. Really, it's a tough massage.
05:24A few bones broken, but I feel wonderful.
05:27The Chinese seaside seems just like the British seaside.
05:31Lots of people in thick coats, walking round very cold water.
05:37There are the same school parties, and the same loonies, sorry, health freaks.
05:47There are the same keep-fit fanatics, and the same sun worshippers.
05:52Being photographed seems to be a passion in China,
05:55and one that an old ham like myself can hardly resist.
06:03It gives me a sense of belonging, as if I've become an honorary Chinese
06:07on my first day in China.
06:11It's like being in a foreign country,
06:13and it's like being in a foreign country,
06:15and it's like being in a foreign country,
06:17and it's like being in a foreign country,
06:19and it's like being an honorary Chinese on my first day here.
06:22HE LAUGHS
06:24That's good. You like this? Is it good?
06:26Yeah. Very nice.
06:29Back at the guesthouse, there is only one possible book at bedtime.
06:34Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.
06:37Suitable reading for the man who once slept here.
06:42The socialist system will eventually replace the capitalist system.
06:46This is an objective law, independent of man's will.
06:50However much the reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history,
06:54sooner or later, revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph.
07:02What a dream, ain't it?
07:10Among the hills outside the city
07:12is something never envisaged in Mao's little red book,
07:15a vineyard producing Chinese chardonnay.
07:18It was started 12 years ago by a pioneering Englishman
07:22who went bust and died at the age of 43.
07:26Michael Parry's grave overlooks slopes
07:28where supply can now barely keep pace with demand.
07:32Do the Chinese like wine now?
07:35Oh, yes, very much.
07:37Wu Liqiu is the chief winemaker at the Huadong Vineyard.
07:41Because our production is getting bigger and bigger.
07:44Yeah.
07:47Michael Parry's unfulfilled dream has been realised
07:50as a joint venture project between the Chinese and a British company.
08:04Huadong is being modernised.
08:06But the labels still go on by hand
08:08and some of the departments remain defiantly labour-intensive.
08:15CLANGING
08:18In the end, of course, it's all a matter of taste.
08:21A magic moment.
08:22Let's start from Riesling.
08:24On an afternoon when we certainly didn't need to chill the wines,
08:28Wu Liqiu poured me some of his favourites.
08:32Oh, that looks a nice colour.
08:33Mm. Yep.
08:36Pale and Chinese Riesling.
08:38There we go.
08:40Yep. Kind of...
08:43Appley?
08:44Yeah, appley.
08:46Like green apple. Yeah.
08:50Well, shall we break the ice?
08:52Yes.
08:57Mm.
09:00Mm.
09:01That's smashing. Very mouthful.
09:03That's smashing. Mm.
09:04Nice, isn't it? Mm.
09:05Well, that's good. Shall we change to Chinese?
09:08Yeah. I could do with a few more glasses.
09:10But China awaits,
09:11as a lot of the country's still to go.
09:18Well, we've come inland now from Qingdao on the coast to Taishan,
09:22which is China's most sacred mountain.
09:25And it's considered very much to your spiritual advantage to climb it,
09:28which is what I, of course, intend to do.
09:30Thoughtfully, they've put some steps up the mountain,
09:336,293 of them.
09:36So, better get started.
09:42The Chinese believe that if you can climb the exalted mountain,
09:46you'll live to be 100.
09:48Pension fund managers will be pretty impressed by the turnout today.
09:58Good for you, though, isn't it?
10:00It's a good thing to climb.
10:03Once you get to the top, you...
10:07..you can...
10:09..Gods will look after you for a few years.
10:14See you come again.
10:21The stamina of the pilgrims is impressive.
10:24Taishan Mountain is 5,000 feet high,
10:27and well before the top, we're in amongst unmelted snow.
10:30I've lost count now. I think it's about 200...
10:33..about...
10:36Is this travel or work, some Chinese ask me?
10:39It's travel and work.
10:41To see the country.
10:43As much of the country as possible.
10:45Yeah.
10:49Today Taishan, tomorrow the world.
10:53Race you to the top?
10:55The only people who take it in their stride are porters,
10:58and they're carrying the heaviest weights.
11:06THEY CHATTER
11:17Taishan Mountain has great meaning for all Chinese.
11:21The Taoists believe life begins where the sun rises,
11:24so this, the most easterly mountain in China, is the most sacred.
11:28Even Chairman Mao struggled up here.
11:31At last, after two-and-a-half hours,
11:34I reach the southern gate of heaven.
11:47Once through the august portals, relief is short-lived.
11:54Not only is the temperature in paradise well below zero,
11:59but the real heaven is another half-mile away,
12:02up another hundred steps.
12:04Then there's Immortalisation Archway to pass through,
12:07and you're there.
12:12Time to pay respects and give heartfelt thanks
12:15to the greatest deity on the mountain,
12:18the Princess of the Temple of the Azure Cloud.
12:21Thank you very much. Very nice mountain.
12:32From the sacred mountains of Taishan
12:35to the fleshpots of Shanghai is a journey of 550 miles.
12:43For a communist country, China is the only place
12:46where you can go to worship the Buddha.
12:49For a communist country, China's trains
12:52have always been conspicuously class-conscious.
12:55Now the difference between hard and soft class seems to be widening.
12:59Hello. Hello.
13:01Taking pictures of all Chinese eating breakfast.
13:04In today's China, wealth, it seems, can be flaunted without risk.
13:08As Deng Xiaoping himself said, to be rich is glorious.
13:12What's it made of?
13:14Rice? It's not rice.
13:18I'm invited to share a table with a businessman
13:21who honed his skills in Canada
13:24and is now one of Shanghai's many new entrepreneurs.
13:27You know, I was here eight years ago.
13:30It seems to be changing a lot. Do you find it's changed?
13:33For the last ten years, it's changed a lot.
13:36But mostly in these major cities,
13:39and especially along the coast,
13:42along the Hong Kong border, Shenzhen,
13:45is the city changed the most for the last three years.
13:48Shanghai has changed a lot.
13:51Do you find there are any problems running a business in China
13:54that you wouldn't have elsewhere?
13:57Over here, there are problems.
14:00The people are not used to the way we're running things.
14:03They've been working for the communist kind of way
14:06for the last 40 years.
14:09But they're learning.
14:15It's eight years since I was last on a Chinese train,
14:18and they certainly have changed.
14:21I mean, just on the in-train entertainment system
14:24now carries adverts.
14:27There was one for liquor, there was one for insurance.
14:30The buffet I had for breakfast this morning,
14:33I mean, very international, the uniforms,
14:36the general standard, the look of the train.
14:39It's all much more up-to-date, I suppose one would say.
14:43It's almost more Western.
14:46I just remember it used to be a bit livelier,
14:49a bit less predictable.
14:52I wonder if this is just one face of modern China.
15:05See, more advertising in exactly the right place.
15:13We're sucked into Shanghai
15:16by mile after mile of new apartment blocks.
15:19They're being built to house
15:22all those millions of Chinese
15:25who Chairman Mao once exhorted to work the countryside.
15:28They're now urged by his successors
15:31to seek their fortune in the city.
15:34Outside the station, I step into a great stew
15:37of cars, crowds and commerce.
15:40Overwhelming, but exciting.
15:54Next morning, I'm out on the street
15:57to buy some food for my family.
16:00Next morning, I'm out on the streets
16:03because the Chinese authorities won't allow us
16:06to conduct interviews with people in their houses,
16:09so not everything's changed.
16:15The sheer number of bicycles in Shanghai
16:18provides a collective security.
16:21It's the cyclist who's boss, not the car.
16:24But I wonder for how long.
16:30Shhh!
16:39I can't quite believe it, but I'm told
16:42that right beside these old alleys
16:45where Chinese communism was born,
16:48there is now a branch of Harvey Nichols.
16:56And it's true.
17:00The Paris are all represented here.
17:03Even Savile Row has come to Shanghai.
17:10Hello.
17:13It's quite a surprise to find jeans and hawks here.
17:16It's a long way from home.
17:19Let's have a look.
17:22Ah, there's a sale here.
17:25This looks my sort of thing. Can I try this on?
17:28I never get a chance to go to jeans and hawks in London,
17:31so I think I'll go to jeans and hawks in Shanghai.
17:43Not quite. I don't think it's quite me.
17:46I think it should be a bit longer and a bit wider.
17:49I could have it as a dressing gown.
17:52How much is that?
17:56440. For only 440 quid,
17:59you can look like a complete prat.
18:02Let's have a look at the blazers,
18:05because they're not in the sale.
18:08How much is it?
18:11750 pounds.
18:14Is it really only 20 years since the whole country
18:17wore Chairman Mao jackets?
18:20That's better, isn't it?
18:23Lovely. Oh! Sorry, I've just noticed.
18:26I see.
18:29Do you sell... No, exactly.
18:32Just shoot me from up here, please. Nigel, thank you very much.
18:35Do you sell bicycle clips?
18:38That's what I really need, some monogrammed bicycle clips.
18:41I've only just noticed.
18:46Alongside luxury tailors, luxury cars are beginning to appear.
18:53At this speed of change,
18:56I wonder how long Shanghai's bicycle repairmen
18:59will be able to survive.
19:02Good. That's fine. Thank you.
19:05Is that enough?
19:08Oh. Really? You want that?
19:11Bargain. Jitsi.
19:14It's all right. I'm doing it.
19:17Nice to do business with you. Thanks.
19:20If you're looking for something you understand, China,
19:23you come across something like this.
19:29Something you really can't imagine happening
19:32on Oxford Street or Fifth Avenue.
19:43The Chinese love ballroom dancing,
19:46and if they can't find a ballroom, they'll do it anywhere.
19:49I mean, you don't have to be Fred Astaire.
19:54It's all coming back to me now.
20:00I gave all this up for rock and roll.
20:03Only had two lessons.
20:06You don't even need to speak the same language.
20:09You just have to be dressed properly.
20:20That's all right, yes. Thank you.
20:34Good morning.
20:40Well, he's from Bristol, Ealing.
20:43Ealing?
20:46If I want to get to the Bund,
20:49which direction do I go?
20:52Go eastward, then you can get to the Bund.
20:55Go eastward? Yes. Where did you learn to speak English?
20:58I'm a St. John's graduate.
21:01You see, St. John's is sponsored by the Americans.
21:04Oh, right. Just before the war, before the liberation war.
21:07What did you do during the time we call the Cultural Revolution?
21:10Oh, I'm very sorry.
21:13You see, I'm a graduate from St. John's, and that would be very troublesome.
21:16What? Oh, I see. To talk about it. Yes.
21:19So you would not have been... 20 years ago, you would not have been allowed to talk to me.
21:22Sure.
21:25If I talk to you, then I'm something wrong. I must be a rebel.
21:28What?
21:31Yeah, something would be wrong. Yeah, OK.
21:34But now it's different, now, is it?
21:37There's a couple of chaps coming round there in police uniforms,
21:40looking a bit uncertain.
21:43But nowadays, it doesn't matter. They can't interfere.
21:46We can talk freely.
21:49I get the impression that my new friend is someone
21:52I still shouldn't be talking to.
21:55I make a quick exit and follow his directions
21:58to the banks of the Huangpu River.
22:01Well, this area behind me now is the Bund,
22:04the financial and economic heart of Shanghai.
22:07And even eight years ago, when I was last here,
22:10this was still the centre.
22:13But in the last five years, a truly staggering, staggering construction project
22:16has now changed all that,
22:19and the new face of Shanghai is going to be over here on what was...
22:34Shouldn't have had the prunes.
22:39What I was trying to say is that this is the new economic zone of Pudong.
22:43It's the most awesome evidence of China's open-door policy.
22:47Tower blocks, built at the rate of one floor every three days,
22:51will house a stock exchange, banks, property developers,
22:55all the heavy artillery of capitalism.
22:59It may be capitalism without democracy,
23:02but there is surely no going back
23:05to the stern certainties of old-style communism.
23:22This is the gaudy face of a country that has seen 10% growth
23:26every year for the last ten years, and wants more.
23:33Later that night, I catch the Midnight Express out of Shanghai.
23:55Are they always... Is it always full? I've never seen...
23:58Oh, yes, it is. It's always like this.
24:02And people have to book ahead for these?
24:06Oh, yeah.
24:09How many people... Thousands on these trains, I suppose.
24:12Oh, yeah. You never see the hard seats.
24:15If you see them, they're fully packed.
24:18That's further down there. And they sleep on those hard seats for days?
24:22I mean, how long would a train like this take to get from down south
24:25to Beijing, say?
24:28Oh, it would take probably three days.
24:31Hmm.
24:34The hard class haven't got beds. Oh, yeah.
24:37Right, well, but we have. Whoops.
24:40Ah!
24:46Ooh.
24:55Our destination is Vietnam, but we're taking an inland route,
24:59travelling due west from Shanghai and following the Yangtze River
25:03into the heart of China.
25:08It's the third longest river in the world,
25:11only a fraction shorter than the Amazon and the Nile.
25:15Upstream from the city of Yichang, it enters a series of gorges
25:19which cut through mountains so steep and impassable
25:22that the river is still the only way through.
25:28The Yangtze is a dangerous river.
25:31Attempts have been made to control its mighty, unpredictable flow.
25:35The lock at Gezhou is one of them.
25:38Before it was built, boats had to battle their way
25:41through rapids, whirlpools and fierce currents.
25:53This massive lock now that we're ascending
25:57actually raises the water level about 100 feet.
26:01And it's here because the Yangtze has already been dammed
26:05at this point.
26:08But if the Three Gorges project goes through,
26:11this massive damming project which the Chinese government insists
26:15will go through by the year 2009,
26:18then there'll be many more dams to be built.
26:21And many more locks like this for people to navigate
26:24as they go up the Yangtze.
26:27But this is pretty spectacular.
26:46Once through the lock, we enter Jilin,
26:49the first of the three great Yangtze gorges.
27:05This was once the most treacherous stretch on the whole river.
27:08Massive rocks claimed dozens of ships and thousands of lives.
27:20The busy river sweeps by between limestone formations
27:24to which the Chinese have given names
27:27like Yellow Cat Gorge, Lantern Shadow Gorge
27:31and Ox Liver and Horse Lungs Gorge.
27:36Then, quite suddenly, the landscape changes.
27:39Changes utterly.
27:43From the middle of the Chinese countryside
27:46rises the biggest construction site in the world.
27:49Over the next 15 years,
27:52a gigantic wall, 600 feet high
27:56and one and a quarter miles long
27:59will rise from these foundations.
28:02It will cost $20 billion.
28:07Well, this is currently the biggest construction site
28:10and probably the most controversial point on the Yangtze River
28:14because you can see the workings for the Three Gorges Dam
28:18which will extend across the other side of the river here
28:22so that everything from here on that we're going to see,
28:25the gorges we're going to go through
28:28will, in 16 or 17 years' time, be totally underwater.
28:33The homes of over a million people
28:36will disappear beneath a lake 300 metres deep.
28:39Beneath a lake 370 miles long.
28:43The project promises safe navigation,
28:46cheap electricity and an end to devastating floods.
28:50The cost will be the loss of all this.
29:09The man-made scenery of the Yangtze is spectacularly grim.
29:25Ancient power stations belch fumes.
29:28A permanent smell of sulphur hangs in the air.
29:33These towns look doomed.
29:36Why change anything when in a few years all this will be engulfed?
29:46Coal is flung down the mountainside,
29:49some of it sliding into barges,
29:52the rest settling over the city like a great black shroud.
29:59We pass through Witches Gorge and into Sichuan province.
30:02There could hardly be a greater contrast
30:05with the world we've left behind,
30:08the glittering promise of Shanghai and the Three Gorges Dam.
30:11This is old China,
30:14where machines are few and expensive
30:17and human effort plentiful and cheap.
30:25Men and women form a conveyor belt to the coal barges.
30:33We decide to stop here and look at the town.
30:36It's called Wuxiang,
30:39a small, hard-working place of few luxuries.
30:47Life on Main Street reflects basic needs,
30:50food and warmth for the coming winter.
30:53But there's no place like home.
30:57For some reason, Wuxiang is full of hairdressers.
31:00I decide to treat myself.
31:03You do one of those, like you were doing to him,
31:06and a wash and no haircuts.
31:09I think that's OK.
31:12All right, how do you do?
31:18I'm a hairdresser.
31:21I'm a hairdresser.
31:24How do you do?
31:33This is a monk's hair wash.
31:36I'll just do the bit in the middle.
31:46They're obviously working relays here
31:49because one lady lathers the hair very thoroughly.
31:53The girl here applies the massage, which is very nice.
31:56I'm not quite sure what's going to happen next,
31:59but I'll leave them to it anyway.
32:14I don't think this happens very often in a town like Wuxiang,
32:17judging by the audience.
32:20You don't really see any Westerners at all.
32:23We've hardly seen anybody here.
32:28The other sad thing
32:31is that in seven years,
32:34this high street will be completely dead.
32:37It'll be evacuated,
32:40and a couple of years after that, about ten years from now,
32:43it'll be underwater.
32:51Every porter in town has turned out to help us leave.
32:54It's a fixed fee.
32:57The fewer the porters, the more money they share.
33:00So each man fights to carry more.
33:20Believe it or not, these are the lucky ones.
33:36I try to be helpful,
33:39but all I'm doing is depriving someone of a job.
33:51Separated from the rest of China by a ring of mountains,
33:54Sichuan is home to 100 million people.
33:58For many of them, the Yangtze is not only the lifeblood,
34:01but the great highway.
34:10The hard-worked river boats
34:13sustain a whole range of ancillary services.
34:16As departure draws closer,
34:19the noise in the kitchen rises from merely manic to hysterical.
34:33Chinese takeaway is given a whole new meaning.
34:50Those of us not enjoying the benefits of a Chinese throwaway
34:53eat in the more sophisticated surroundings
34:56of the first-class dining room.
35:01We're deep inside China now,
35:04and I'm aware, not uncomfortably,
35:07that we're the only non-Chinese on the boat.
35:13The Yangtze River is the largest river in China,
35:16and we're the only non-Chinese on the boat.
35:47After three days and two nights on board ship,
35:50we've negotiated...
35:53Negotiated... Shut up!
35:56Negotiated our way down the Yangtze gorges
35:59to the town of Chongqing, which is laid out here.
36:02It's about 1,500 miles from the mouth of the Yangtze in Shanghai,
36:07and here the Yangtze River meanders off
36:10for another 2,500 miles up towards the Tibetan border.
36:14We, on the other hand, have to now try and head south
36:17towards the Vietnamese border
36:20and try and get a train across to Hanoi.
36:23The last we heard was that there definitely wasn't
36:26a train service across the border to Hanoi,
36:29and also that there definitely was,
36:32so we'll just have to go and see for ourselves.
36:35This might have been the easy bit.
36:38At first sight, Chongqing looks as romantic
36:41as all the other cities of the Yangtze.
36:44The difference is its size.
36:54Chongqing is the biggest city in China.
36:57It may soon be the biggest city in the world.
37:0016 million people live in and around this mini Manhattan.
37:05It's famous for its fog.
37:12In the morning, I set out for a lunch date.
37:20Steps climb steeply from the river.
37:2450 years ago, the entire water supply for the city
37:27was carried up here by an army of 20,000 porters.
37:31OK, so if you choose anything, a local speciality.
37:36Waiting for me at the meat market is Miss Liu,
37:39a 23-year-old graduate from Chongqing University.
37:42She's one of a new generation of Chinese
37:45who can barely remember hard-line communism
37:48and the Cultural Revolution.
37:54So this is the meat market.
37:58OK, it's OK.
38:00So, Miss Liu, the meat that's hanging up here, that is the menu, is it?
38:03That's where the food we're going to eat comes from?
38:06Yeah, yeah.
38:08What have we got? What's this we're starting with?
38:11I think this is the steamed meat.
38:14Steamed meat. The pork. Pork meat, yeah.
38:17Have a try.
38:20Try a bit of steamed pork.
38:23How about it?
38:27We've come from, sort of, into China through Korea
38:30and we spent some time in Shanghai.
38:33Does it worry you that as people get richer,
38:36they get more selfish,
38:39less community-minded?
38:42I mean, when Mao's idea was that China should be built
38:45on the peasantry who shared everything,
38:48now everyone's getting rich, they have their mobile phones.
38:51Do you think this is a change for the worse?
38:55I think so, to some extent.
38:58Because I've learned that before the Cultural Revolution in China,
39:04people lived more closely to each other.
39:09They talked to each other very friendly.
39:13But nowadays I don't think so.
39:16Do you have an image of life in Great Britain,
39:19I mean, London, where I come from?
39:22Someone said they were very preserved.
39:26Reserved, yes.
39:29Preserved is really ugly.
39:32That's more true than you think.
39:35And also, especially for the men,
39:38they are gentleman-like.
39:41They have good manners.
39:44I think if I have the chance, I'll go to Britain
39:47to see what's the difference in real Great Britain
39:50and the Great Britain in my mind.
39:53You be careful of the men, they're not all preserved at all.
40:05Not the local football supporters,
40:08but retired people exercising communally in the socialist manner.
40:16Red sashes are sported
40:19to remind Miss Liu's generation of their revolutionary heritage.
40:27Time to leave Chongqing.
40:37The Chinese take their railways seriously.
40:40Complete with its own martial music,
40:43the 9.30 for Guiyang pulls out dead on time.
40:50South of Chongqing now.
40:53Still running beside the Yangtze.
40:56About another half hour or so
40:59till the main artery of China.
41:13An hour out of Chongqing
41:16as we part company with the Yangtze for the last time,
41:19I ask the driver what he thinks of the Spice Girls.
41:25We're travelling south now,
41:28away from the cold grey mists of the gorges
41:31into a world of green paddy fields
41:34and a rich, reviving subtropical sunshine.
41:38The railway slices across a high limestone plateau
41:41and into Guizhou province.
41:44Its construction a mere 30 years ago
41:47was vital in opening up this remote region.
41:50But even so, Guizhou remained closed to foreigners until the 1980s.
42:08Guizhou is far from big cities and centres of control.
42:11These mountains have provided a last refuge
42:14for some of the oldest tribes in China.
42:29My guide, Shung Wan, or Priscilla, as she prefers to be called,
42:32has been to Guizhou.
42:36This is where the Miao people live.
42:44The Miao form an ethnic minority of some 5 million.
42:47They have more in common with the mountain people of Laos, Vietnam and Burma
42:50than they do with the Chinese.
42:54During the Cultural Revolution, they had to conform.
42:57Now they're free to live the way they want,
43:00but they remain very poor.
43:03Would you buy things from this market?
43:06Would you buy food here?
43:09Yes.
43:12Would you buy food here?
43:15Yes.
43:18Would you buy food here?
43:22Is it safe?
43:25Yes, it's safe.
43:28It just looks kind of basic there,
43:31meat laid out on the open tables.
43:34Do you want to try some?
43:37I love these.
43:40Do they wear this all the time, this national dress?
43:43Yes.
43:46And they were even more beautiful
43:49on holidays, on festival days.
43:52But they're not wearing this just for market day,
43:55this is what they normally wear.
43:58Yeah, normally wear.
44:01These days, the Miao are actively encouraged to celebrate their own culture.
44:04The Chinese have set up a minorities' ministry to make sure that they do.
44:15The Miao love festivals.
44:18Their main purpose was the need for the young to find partners.
44:21A get-together could lead to a knees-up, which could lead to...
44:24A get-together, which could lead to a whole new generation of musicians.
44:34Driven out of the rich lowland plains by the Chinese,
44:37the Miao have had to make a living from a magnificent landscape
44:40but very poor soil.
44:44The methods haven't changed much in hundreds of years.
44:47Machinery is almost unknown.
45:03Their tractors are water buffalo
45:06and their sea drills are women and children.
45:14There are no roads.
45:17To get to the village, we have to walk through the paddy fields.
45:22There are few places in the world as untouched.
45:26We're probably the first foreigners they've ever seen.
45:29Hello.
45:32Miao.
45:35They speak Chinese.
45:38Miao.
45:41Do you understand Chinese or Miao?
45:44Only Miao.
45:50Only I can understand some Mandarin.
45:54Unlike many others in China, the Miao are open, friendly and curious.
45:59I asked Priscilla if we can see in the house.
46:05Yes, yes.
46:09Let's go in, shall we?
46:16Here we are, barging in while you're having your lunch.
46:19Is this...
46:23Yeah.
46:26Do they have big meal in the middle of the day and then go back to work?
46:30Yes, yes.
46:33Have you ever seen foreigners before?
46:36Ever seen people from the West?
46:45What do we look like to them?
46:48Quite different.
46:51Quite strange.
46:54Quite different.
46:58Why?
47:01We're big nose, they say.
47:04That's just me, not everybody has nose as big as this.
47:17Two weeks after entering the Yangtze gorges,
47:20we're out of the mountains and rushing across the southwestern plains
47:23towards the Vietnam border.
47:28We're almost to the border.
47:32It turns out there is no rail connection to Hanoi after all.
47:36We must leave our train and carry on by bus.
47:43We're set down, hours later,
47:46at a grand, strangely deserted frontier.
47:50Well, this is Friendship Gate in Pingxiang
47:53and it marks the end of China
47:56and the frontier with Vietnam, which I hope to cross in a moment.
47:59I say hope because this is not an orthodox way of leaving China.
48:03In fact, in 1979, the Chinese and the Vietnamese went to war
48:06and this whole border was sealed off.
48:09They're now opening it again, sort of tentatively, but not many people here.
48:12I just hope that someone to see my passport will help us all across.
48:15And sadly, it's goodbye to China and hello, Vietnam.