At the southern edge of the north china plain lies qingling mountains. At 1500km long, they run like a backbone through the middle of china. Deep within the mountains is a maze of remote valleys and forests home to a strange and wonderful creature. These are golden snub-nosed monkeys, a species unique to china. Seldom seen, they are frequently heard. Their strange, child-like calls and extraordinary appearance may have inspired the local tales of yeti-like wild men of the mountains. As the winter temperature drops to minus 10 degrees Celsius, their dense fur keep them warm. Mutual grooming not only keeps that precious fur in good condition, but also helps to reinforce bonds within the troop. In summer the monkeys go around in huge bands, but at this lean time of the year, they spilt up into smaller foraging parties. In the dead of winter, the monkeys are forced to rummage around the rocks for a few meager morsels of lichen and moss. As the world surrounding their mountain home has filled up with towns and croplands, the snub-nosed monkey’s habitat has changed dramatically. Today there are just 10,000 left in existence.

To the people who live in Qinling mountain, the forests and its wildlife are a resources to be used as the basis of their livelihood. These people share the forest with an even more illusive inhabitant. It’s probably china’s most famous animal but very few have ever seen it. Unlike the monkeys, this creature has a very specific diet- bamboo. It’s wild giant panda. Secret and sensitive to noise, the giant panda is often gone before anyone going get close to it. The panda has long been known in china. It was mentioned in dictionary more than 2000 years ago and the imperial garden is said to have housed one. In the dense bamboo forests, one panda rarely sees another. Instead they communicate by subtle scent signals. At a meter and half long and 135 kilos, the giant panda is a member of bear family. But its bear-like digest system is built for eating meat, not this tough, fibrous stuff. And to make matters worse, the bamboo leaves are frozen solid. But the panda has devised a cunning way of breaking the ice off. It rubs the bamboo over its snout. Unlike other bears, the panda can’t fatten itself up and hibernate through the winter. Bamboo is so low in energy that panda must spend most of the day eating. Once it has exhausted one area, it must move on to the next. The panda’s paw is surprisingly unbearlike too. It’s flexible, with a enlarged wrist bone which allows it to grasp but maneuver the bamboo with dexterity and precision that a monkey would be proud of. Twisting the bamboo leaves into a cigar shape makes them easier to munch. Hungry pandas once roamed across vast tracks of bamboo-rich forest that covered much of china’s heartland. But since the 1950s, logging has fragmented the qinling mountain forests. Its remaining wild pandas are now confined within isolated reserves.　

In the last fifty years, china’s heartland has been subjected to desertification,   drying rivers and deforestation, affecting not only people, but wildlife too. The relationship between the Chinese people and their environment appears to be out of balance. But if we dig it a little bit deeper, there are some surprising and intimate connections even today. Clues to the nature of these links can be found in everyday life, even in the centre of china’s capital city. In the parks of Beijing, mandarin ducks keep a close watch over their young. Believed by the Chinese to pair for life, they have been seen for centuries as a symbol of love and fidelity. Images of these birds are believed to improve personal relationships. As a result, Beijing’s mandarin ducks are highly protected.

The alleyways of the capital’s ancient hudongs are home to a very different kind of creature. Each day zhouguoguang tends his brood of pigeons, his chance to escape the pressures of city life for an hour or two. Up here on the rooftops, zhou is confident his charges will be safe. But in the street below, lurk dangerous spirits that scavenge and steal.

Deeper into the hutongs, the influence of modern Beijing recedes. These alleys are full of ancient beliefs. As night falls, spirits emerge from their hiding places, the yellow weasel. Some people believe that offending this crafty predator       can bring bad luck. So they turn a blind eye to the weasel’s night-time marauding. Old beliefs coupled with a rising awareness of conservation are helping the yellow weasel’s survive in the middle of Beijing despite killing the odd pigeon.

In the south of china the relationship with nature appears more brutal. Cantonese cuisine is famous for its diversity; summed up in the saying “we’ll eat anything on four legs, except a table”. And though the government has banned consumption of wild life in china and most of the meat here comes from captive-bred animals, a significant amount is taken illegally from the wild.

 This restaurant in hongkong specializes in serpents. Most are harmless rat snakes, but with the odd cobra on the menu. One false move could spell trouble. Caokailing has lost count of the number of times she’s been bitten. So she always carries a Chinese herbal remedy just in case. We might turn our noses up at such a strange choice of food. But eating snake is more than just a matter of taste, the Cantonese believe it can help to clean the blood, increase vitality and beautify the skin. In such a crowded land, a tradition of eating everything with very little waste could be seen as commendable thrift. The problem is that there are so many people eating wild food in south china that illegal supply chain stretches well beyond its borders, contributing to the disappearance of wild life not only within china but from other countries too.

 A visit to a traditional Chinese medicine shop reveals another aspect of the use of animals and plants. Dr. song has been practicing for over 20 years. The most important part of his diagnosis is the pulse, examined in several places. Dr. song also observes the color of the tongue and eyes and asks questions about the patient’s taste, smell and even dreams. Once satisfied with his diagnosis, he’ll write a prescription using a script unique to doctors. Chinese traditional medicine uses an incredible array of animals, vegetables and minerals to treat individual rather than the illness, aiming to restore the harmony of the opposing but complementary forces known in china as “yin and yang”. The concept is rooted in the ancient belief that the universe is harmonious and that the people are intimately connected to and affected by their environment. Despite the seemingly bizarre nature of the ingredients, Chinese traditional medicine has been successfully treating people for thousands of years. But although the use of endangered wild life ingredients in medicine is now banned in china, some wild animals and plants are still used illegally. Once again, nature bears the cost.

 But Chinese tradition has borrowed from nature in other ways which are not in the least exploitative. In ancient Chinese philosophy men was considered part of the natural world and able to benefit from its wisdom. Thousands of years ago, Buddhist monks on scared shaolin mountain incorporated their observations of wild creatures into a system of exercises to help the flow of energy and build strength. This animal-inspired art-form became kung fu. Today ancient shaoling mountain, the place where kungfu began, remains its prime training center. Shienting is a master. Students from all over the country come here to learn the ancient knowledge derived from the natural world. The emphasis today is perhaps more on the physical rather than the philosophical elements that underlie kungfu, but it’s a significant re-awakening. This seven-year-old is perfecting the devastating punch of the praying mantis. When combined and perfected, these animal forms such as mantis, monkey and crane become an unstoppable force.

 Ancient Chinese philosophy took nature itself as the inspiration for its most fabulous creature. Fertile rivers may have shaped the civilization, but the Chinese believed that the rivers themselves were formed and controlled by a dragon. Unlike the destructive dragon of the west, the Chinese dragon was benevolent provided it was treated with respect. The ancient Chinese called themselves descendants of the dragon and knew they needed to live harmoniously in the dragon’s realm.

 This respect for the dragon has relevance today for a remarkable creature which lives around the paddy fields of the other china’s great river- the Yangzi. This fearsome-looking beast is a Chinese alligator known as the muddy dragon. Despite its association with the mythical Chinese dragon, the reptile has long been regarded by country people as a fish-eating pest and has been persecuted   almost to the point of extinction. There are only around 150 Chinese alligators left in the wild and it’s mainly down to the care and protection offered by dedicated people like retired farmer changjingrong that any survive at all. Today most Chinese alligators live in captivity. At the breeding center near xuancheng, Chinese alligators gather for their extraordinary courtship. The males bellow to attract a mate. As it travels through the water, the sound is both heard and felt by the female. The bellowing is her cue to investigate. In the alien world of the Chinese alligator, this two will be able to learn much about each other, using the scent glands under their jaws. Satisfied with her choice, the two swim off together before mating. The muddy dragon owes its continual survival to a government initiative a quarter of a century ago which created the captive breeding center at Xuancheng.