CGTN Documentary

A Dream of Red Mansions is famed for its complex portraits of many women characters. Skybright is the most representative of the maids portrayed in the book. Restricted and stymied by the feudal conventions of the time, she’s ultimately doomed to a miserable fate. But against the tragic backdrop her vivid personality shines through. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Edito...

A timeless literary classic, A Dream of Red Mansions, is Qing novelist Cao Xueqin’s magnum opus. Full of sharp-eyed observations, it’s a novel that casts much light on 18th-century China. First published over 250 years ago, this story of a declining noble family is enduring cultural phenomenon that continues to attract more and more devotees. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin C...

The wild yak is one of the most resilient species to have evolved on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. With their intimidating size and numbers, even wolves give them a wide berth most of the time. But wolves are nothing if not opportunistic, so when a yak strays from the herd, all bets are off. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

The plateau pika is the most common species in the Hoh Xil Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Unfortunately, the degeneration of meadows is threatening their numbers, and there are no other suitable food resources for them to turn to. As a vital link in the food chain, their survival could determine the fate of an entire ecosystem. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Edit...

Every May, Tibetan antelopes from three different regions in China make an incredible migration towards Zhuonai Lake, their preferred breeding ground. Witness the miracle of life the Hoh Xil Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Aser music, the time-honored variety of Mongolian music, is on the verge of extinction. To study Aser music, Chinese pop band Hanggai is visiting several folk musicians of the older generation to perform together an Aser song. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Guitarist Zheng Xiaogang wants to be as free and unfettered as the famed Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai one day. In this episode, he follows in the footsteps of Li Bai and writes a song based on one of Li Bai’s poems as a memento of his trip. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

After his band split up, singer and songwriter Geng Qi suffered a series of blows in his life. Now he decides to accompany his friend to Tibet so he can sniff out creative inspiration. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Three young Chinese musicians have embarked on a music trip themed on Hua’er, a representative type of Hui ethic folk music in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

The 12 Girls Band was a pioneering Chinese musical group formed in 2001. Now they plan to create a new piece of music incorporating a characteristically ideal sound found during their journey in Honghe, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

This episode takes us to Japan to look at the fascinating art of salt carving. Artist Motoi Yamamoto, one of the leading practitioners of this art form, is creating extraordinarily artistic effects from salt crystals. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Believe it or not, salt was once known as “white gold”, a substance so valuable that it could bring wars! This episode examines the ways in which salt caused tensions between two neighboring countries in Europe, Germany and Austria. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

The history of salt is also a tale of fortune. In this episode we look at two families prominent in the history of the Great Britain and China, who, despite being oceans apart geographically and culturally, have one thing in common: wealth founded on salt. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Whilst most salt-production has now been industrialized, there’s a remote desert in northwestern India where people prefer the traditional way. For them, salt produced in the old way is the whitest and purest anywhere in the world. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Did you know that ancient Rome’s salt monopoly shaped a civilization whose influence was destined to echo down the ages? In this episode the crew embark for a place whose salt underpinned the wealth of the Roman Empire: the Italian seaside town of Cervia. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

This episode takes us to the so-called Gate of Hell, the Dallol Volcano in East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, where, in temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius, miners toil to ensure that reaching for the table salt is something most of us barely have to think about. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

The cause of China’s mission into outer space began from scratch far back in 1956. Since the 1990s, three scientists, all in their fifties, have been engaging on lunar exploration, all yearning to get to the lunar surface. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

There’s a language in the world that everyone can understand. Transcending culture, nations and race, it’s a language with the power to unite the whole world. Its name is Kung Fu! In this episode, we find out about the foreigners learning Kung Fu and how people like Shi Yanlei, champion of the fight clubs of London, are spreading the word of Shaolin Kung Fu far and wide. Editor: Luo Wen Operation:...

Once a disciple walks out of the Shaolin Temple, he enters the “jianghu”. Obedience, courage and loyalty are the qualities required to walk in the jianghu. Here, everyone is looking for his place and everyone has jianghu in their heart. It’s exactly this spirit that has driven boxer Zhuang Shusong to spend two grueling years training in Thailand. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li X...

Kung Fu practitioners devote so much time and thought to finding the ideal weapon for them. When you’ve put so much effort into developing the fighting potential of your body, you need a weapon as finely honed as you are! Which is precisely why Kung Fu master and carpenter Zheng Shuji has devoted himself to carving a Dharma rod from a piece of wood he found on a mountain. Editor: Luo Wen Operation...

Many are the legends about the secrets of Kung Fu! But when it comes to the rich heritage of Shaolin Kung Fu, where does fantasy end and truth begin? In this episode, we’ll explore the Kung Fu secrets that have lay buried for centuries and peer into the future. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

The Shaolin Temple is a doubly sacred place. For not only is it one of China’s most sacred Buddhist temples, it is also the revered home of Chinese Kung Fu! But despite their devotion to a common religious vocation, the path of Kung Fu has taken the monks of the temple in many different directions. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changy...

While few people would imagine that a desert backwater could be transformed into a world-famous wine producing region in three decades, this is exactly what has happened in northwestern China’s Ningxia region. What features of Ningxia have made it a magnet for people coming from far and wide? And what factors have brought about such a dramatic change? Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer:...

Who would have thought it? Ningxia, that once dry and barren land, now world-famous for its luscious grapes and wine! More than anything this miracle is down to the greatest gift of all that nature has bestowed on Ningxia: the mighty Yellow River! Quite apart from the great role it’s played in shaping a great civilization, it’s the waters of the Yellow River that account for the distinctive flavor...

Lacquerware making has been around for 7,000 years in China. The ancient craft attracted French artist Vincent Cazeneuve to set up a studio in Chongqing. Now in the southwestern Chinese city for over a decade, he has been incorporating his own style and Western aesthetics to bring a new look to traditional Chinese lacquerware. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zha...