BBC美丽中国英文字幕word第二集

Beneath billowing clouds,

in China's far southwestern Yunnan province,

lies a place of mystery and legend.

Of mighty rivers and some of

the oldest jungles in the world.

Here, hidden valleys nurture strange

and unique creatures,

and colourful tribal cultures.

Jungles are rarely found this

far north of the tropics.

So, why do they thrive here?

And how has this rugged landscape come to harbour the greatest natural wealth in all China?

In the remote southwest corner of China,

a celebration is about to take place.

Dai people collect water for

the most important festival of their year.

The Dai call themselves the people of the water. Yunnan's river valleys have been their home

for over , years.

By bringing the river water to the temple,

they honour the two things holiest to them - Buddhism and their home.

The Dai give thanks for the rivers and fertile lands which have nurtured their culture.

Though to some it might seem just an excuse

for the biggest water fight of all time.

Dai lives are changing

as towns get bigger and modernize

but the Water Splashing Festival

is still celebrated by all.

The rivers which lie at the heart of

Dai life and culture

flow from the distant mountains of Tibet, southward through central Yunnan

in great parallel gorges.

The Dai now live in the borders of tropical Vietnam and Laos,

but their legends tell of

how their ancestors came here

by following the rivers from mountain lands

in the cold far north.

Lying at the far eastern end of the Himalayas, the Hengduan mountains form Yunnan's

northern border with Tibet.

Kawakarpo, crown of the Hengduan range,

is a site of holy pilgrimage.

Yet, its formidable peak remains unconquered. Yunnan's mountains are remote,

rugged and inaccessible.

Here the air is thin and temperatures

can drop below minus degrees.

This is home to an animal that's found

nowhere else on Earth.

The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey.

It's found only in these few

isolated mountain forests.

No other primate lives at such high altitudes. but these are true specialists.

These ancient mountain dwellers

have inspired legends.

Local Lisu people consider them their ancestors, calling them "the wild men of the mountains". During heavy snowfalls,

even these specialists cannot feed.

It seems a strange place for a monkey.

Between snows, the monkeys waste

no time in their search for food.

At this altitude,

there are few fruits or tender leaves to eat.

% of their diet is made up of

the fine dry wisps of a curious organism.

Half fungus, half plant -

it's lichen.

How have monkeys,

normally associated with lowland jungle,

come to live such a

remote mountain existence?

This is not the only remarkable

animal found within these

isolated high peaks.

A Chinese red panda.

Solitary and quiet, it spends much

of its time in the tree tops.

Despite its name,

the red panda is only a very distant

relative of the giant panda.

It's actually more closely