Moso bamboo originated from China
And it has a worldwide influence
When did mulberry tree spread to Europe
And how was tofu brought to Japan
“The Journey of Chinese Plants”
Tells the world the story of Chinese plants
To systematically introduce Chinese plants on such scale
Is unprecedented in China
The least documentaries are made about botany
People watch people, and then animals and after that botany
BBC took the lead in shooting botany documentaries
How many kinds of plants are there in the country? Over 4000
While China is home to over 35000 different species, only counting the known ones
That’s 1/10 of all plants on the earth
Chinese culture grows out of plants
We have more than 270 Chinese characters with bamboo radicals
There are over 100 kinds of plants in “The Classic of Poetry”
No plants in “Dream of the Red Chamber”, impossible
Consisting of 10 episodes
Our crew filmed across 27 provinces
And seven other countries
102 photographers
Introduced to the team by each other
By that means we collected members of the team
The shooting lasted three years
The first episode is the heaven of plants
Depicting all kinds of plants on the vast land of China
Followed by five episodes
Each featuring a major plants
Rice to begin with, and tea tree
Mulberry tree, soy bean, and bamboo
Flower comes last
Flower is the reproductive system of plants
It is meant for reproduction
Not for people
But men give it meaning, sometimes too much
There was a group of “plant hunter” who came to China seeking plants
They played important roles in the migration of plants
Wilson looked for dove tree in China
He spent fifteen years in China
During which he identified over 4000 Chinese plant species
And brought with him 200 of them
The youngest fruit that China gave the world is kiwi fruit
It is successfully cultivated in New Zealand
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau means a lot to China
It is the third pole after the North and South Poles
The rising of the plateau breeds the water system of China
It’s home to peach trees and mulberry trees
The 1600-year-old mulberry tree we filmed is there
Like Tahuang (Rheum nobile Hook. f. et Thoms.)
Like meconopsis
They grow between elevations of 4000m and 6000m
At high altitude pebble beach
People become slower in reaction and their intelligence is undermined
That makes the filming more challenging
The most impressive plant we find
Is parashorea cathayensis, which could grow to the height of a skyscraper
And to capture the image of a flower grows very high up on the tree
Rhododendron protistum, dozens of meters above ground
At Xinjiang, you can find 600 year old apple trees
In Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang, you can find ginkgo trees which have five generations alive at the same time
Microscope photography this time leaves successful experiences
For Chinese documentaries to go by
Chinese Academy of Science lent us three ancient lotus seeds
The lotus seeds date back one thousand years
My hands were shaking when I cut them
And I graduated from a military school
When I was younger, Tangshan under the feet of the Great Wall
Were occupied with plants
And I didn’t know how precious it was
Because you were too busy running away
To notice
And when you finally look back once in a while
Where does your idea of beauty come from
I think it comes from where I grew up
Chinese plant is great
As it gives birth to our culture
It shapes the aesthetics of Chinese people, even of the world
Plant is the uterus of everything
They are to be filmed by others if not me