The improbable egg-carton hills of Southern China seem to float
in a sea of glistening rice paddies. This is a landscape full of
surprises. Next to peasants ploughing with buffaloes are rivers
concealing dwarf alligators and giant salamanders, trained
cormorants that catch fish for their masters, bats with unusual
tastes and monkeys that hide in caves. Hidden beneath billowing
clouds, in China's remote south west, are perhaps the richest
natural treasures in all China. Immense rivers carve their way
south below towering peaks. The wind-swept slopes are home to
the highest-living primates in the world and hidden in the
valleys below are jungles with a diversity of wildlife
comparable to those around the Amazon. The Tibetan plateau
covers a quarter of China – an area the size of Western Europe.
This vast, windswept wilderness is one of the world's most
remote places, defined by the glacier-strewn Himalayas. It's
also home to some incredible wildlife such as the rare chiru,
brown bears, wild yaks and the highest