CGTN Documentary

Born and raised in the midst of a world-famous wine culture, Christelle Chene grew up tasting the best vintages in her native France. Yet the varieties of grape she has encountered in northern China’s Ningxia have given her a fresh angle on both wine culture and life. Attracted by a new path of career development and the hospitality of Ningxia’s local people, she has decided to make the region her...

Laurent Long is a Frenchman obsessed with the written characters of Chinese, as well as the language’s ancient forms. Because of his outstanding work cutting traditional Chinese seals, he became the first foreigner as a member of China’s Xiling Society of Seal Arts in 100 years. These days, he is a keen promoter of the craft. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhan...

Egypt’s New Administrative Capital is currently under construction in the desert. In 2023, Chinese companies will complete and deliver 20 high-rise buildings in the Central Business District. Wang Yao is the only woman among the project's ten managers. In her team, Egyptians and Chinese are working side by side to make a new city block rise from the desert. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Pro...

Ordos in north China’s Inner Mongolia is the location for Asia’s first pilot demonstration of a project aimed at capturing carbon dioxide and storing it in salt water. Now the time has come for Dr. Wang Yongsheng and his team to expand annual storage capacity to one million tonnes - in harmful emissions reduction terms equivalent to planting nearly 2,000 hectares of forest! Editor: Luo Wen Operati...

Soleil is a musician and a young mother from Siem Reap in Cambodia. For more than eight years, she’s been a dedicated member of the local theatrical troupe. Thanks to talented performers like her, and a much-needed injection of professional theater design and technology courtesy of a Chinese company, the Smile of Ankor show has become a must-see theatrical extravaganza showcasing the beauty of Cam...

Far from being solely concerned with ancient books, restorers also devote their attention to a wide range of other texts of cultural and historic importance, such as overseas remittance letters, family portraits, and other often overlooked documents. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Book restorers in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region have been on a unique search and rescue mission: safeguarding the region’s heritage of Buddhist manuscripts. Now, more and more precious books and scrolls are being discovered and preserved in the libraries of the plateau. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

Archaeologists working at the Marquis of Haihun’s Tomb in east China's Jiangxi Province are in for a challenge: restoring Western Han Dynasty bamboo slips made over 2,000 years ago. How will they go about getting this daunting task done? Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

For over 200 years, a legendary family of architects transformed the built-environment of Qing Dynasty, the Lei Family. Now a collection of architectural blueprints known as the Yangshi Lei Archives have been recently “reborn” in the National Library of China. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

An ancient book is in urgent need of restoration, but how can a new generation of book restorers obtain the mulberry-bark paper they need to do the job? Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

In Asia’s biggest library, there’s a team of professionals dedicated to salvaging literary treasures. They rescue priceless texts from the very brink of oblivion on a daily basis. This time, the team is restoring a Ming Dynasty classic. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Liu Changying

As a young man, Qiu Jianqiu had a rather curious ambition: to collect examples of all China’s domestically produced radios. 40 years later, his ambition achieved, he made the public-spirited decision to donate the entirety of his private collection of more than 2,000 radios to the Zhongshan Museum in Guangdong. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Superviso...

Taipei-based collector Garry Ho is one of the great pioneers of the revival of Chinese Wanli culture, especially in the field of calligraphy. Unswervingly committed to uncovering the story behind each piece of calligraphy work and bringing this brilliant art-form to a wider audience, Garry Ho’s collecting career is every bit as flamboyant as the art he promotes. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiq...

Ever since 1992, Zhou Xiaolin has dedicated himself to passing on the ancient venerable craft of the She inkstone. But the task he has set himself is more than simply transmitting the She inkstone tradition. His aim is to fashion inkstones that combines Chinese cultural elements and Huizhou culture out of the finest materials. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zha...

"Inside painting" is the art of creating exquisite paintings inside things like tiny snuff bottles. As a master in this field, Wang Xisan has gained a keen following among connoisseurs of this mind-bogglingly precise visual art. Recently he’s turned his attention towards promoting the art among the wider public, sharing his unique collection of more than 1,000 painted snuff bottles. Editor: Luo We...

The last thing anyone imagined was that practical-minded Ren Hucheng, a mason who’d been repairing old buildings his entire life, would become a collector. But for the past three decades, Ren and his son have dedicated themselves to gathering together a unique collection - the world’s biggest collection of traditional Chinese eave tiles. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief...

Chinese opera costumes have been lighting up the Chinese stage for centuries! Chen Shen, a photographic history scholar, is an avid collector of them. Thanks to his fascination with Peking Opera, he’s devoted the past 30 years to amassing a unique collection that now amounts to more than 500 separate pieces. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor:...

The “ocean-going engine” is by far one of the largest ship engines humans have ever built. Thanks to the application of extremely high-precision machining, this almost indestructible engine will ensure a strong and smooth power output for years to come. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou

The Taklimakan, the second largest drifting desert in the world, has been dubbed the “Sea of Death”. Despite the harsh natural environment, Chinese engineers have managed to overcome every technical challenge to achieve the impossible—the building of a railway around the desert. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou

As part of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, a sea-crossing transit corridor between the cities of Shenzhen and Zhongshan, a section of tunnel is being built which will be completely immersed underwater. But how do you build a 5km-tunnel under the sea? Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou

Today, the importance of data resources, like the oil of the Industrial Age, cannot be underestimated. To this end, China has developed its own distributed database which not only performs massive data computation, but also ensures the accuracy of financial and insurance services. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou

The EMS maglev train is like something out of a science fiction. Using two sets of electromagnets—one to repel and push the train above the tracks, and one to propel it forward—it quite literally flies. But in China, the maglev train is more than just a convenient means of modern transportation. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou

The electricity generated by the super power station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau draws so much water, the Gobi Desert has turned into a pasture. Meanwhile, in Gansu Province, there is a power plant that has the ability to use light energy at night. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou

As the second largest economy in the world, it’s more important than ever for China to increase the efficiency of traditional energy. Learn how China’s ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technology is dealing with the challenge. Editor: Luo Wen Operation: Qiu Ruiqi Producer: Li Xin Chief Editor: Zhang Wan Supervisor: Wang Feizhou