BBC High Definition Natural History Collection (Blu-ray)

BBC's has gathered its award-winning high definition natural history programming into one spectacular collection! Experience the best the Earth has to offer in stunningly clear high definition. Witness rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved creatures with the critically acclaimed, Emmy®-winning Planet Earth; travel the length and breadth of China and discover the fabulous diversity of its natural wonders in Wild China; visit the home of the most astonishing creatures found anywhere on Earth with Galapagos; and discover a kaleidoscope of color and energy as you explore the river that shaped the wildlife, culture and beliefs of India in Ganges. It's your world as you've never seen it before in dazzling Blu-ray hi-def disc!

Planet Earth
You'll be filled with awe and amazement every time you watch this stunning BBC series about our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures, captured on breathtaking, high-definition film in the Earth's most extreme habitats. Forty cameramen and hundreds of producers, scientists and guides spent four years and $25 million to bring you this God's-eye-view of rare action and intimate moments in impossible locations. Zoom in on the elusive snow leopard hunting a mountain goat on a near-vertical cliff face in Pakistan's Hindu Kush. Swim with the blind angelfish that lives in one waterfall in one cave in Thailand. Squeeze through underground tunnels in New Mexico's recently-discovered Lechuguilla Cave, where crystals dangle like 18-foot chandeliers. Shot entirely in high-definition film, with revolutionary new aerial photography. From the team behind Blue Planet, including the esteemed and beloved Sir David Attenborough.

Galapagos
If you can't book a cruise today, watch this breathtaking series instead, and you'll see what astonished Darwin when he visited the islands in 1835: Blue-footed boobies showing off their feet in the world's most colorful mating dance. Surfing sea lions. Diving lizards. And the giant, century-old tortoises for which the islands are named. Nowhere else on Earth can you see such incredible diversity of life, now captured for you in this gloriously filmed three-part series from the BBC and National Geographic. "Even if you don't have HDTV, you'll be swept away by the pin-sharp quality of wildlife images you won't find anywhere else on Earth."- Daily Mirror. "Typically awesome BBC wildlife footage"- Independent.

Ganges
This sumptuous series tells the story of one of the most extraordinary rivers in the world - the Ganges. Follow its journey from mountain to sea, and discover how it touches the lives of every living thing in India.
Embark on an epic journey through India as the very best photography captures the majestic scenery of the Ganges and its beautiful, surprising and often dramatic wildlife. Looking both within its flowing waters and beyond its banks, these three films reflect the whole basin and the many sources and tributaries.
Travelling from the stark beauty of the Himalayas to the rich wilderness of the Sunderbans, witness the dramatic lives of iconic and lesser-known animals - from tigers, elephants and rhino, to the tiniest wild pigs. Marvel at architectural wonders including the Taj Mahal and Shahjahanabad, the ancient cities of Hariwar, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Vikramshilla and Guar, and be amazed by the incredible colour and richness of contemporary Indian culture.

Wild China
Journey to the mystical, mysterious land of splendor and romance! Filmed entirely in stunning high-definition, Wild China lifts the veil on the world's most enigmatic and magnificent country, delving into its vibrant habitats to reveal a land of unbelievable natural complexit ─ beyond the Great Wall and Beijing's Olympic Stadium. Get an amazingly personal look at China - before the world sets its sights on the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Travel across one of the oldest civilizations on Earth - from the glittering peaks of the Himalayas to the barren steppe, the sub-Arctic to the tropical islands, through deserts both searingly hot and mind-numbingly cold and marvel at a dazzling array of mysterious, beautiful, wild and rare pandas, monkeys, snakes and elephants, while tribal minorities such as the Dai keep ancient Buddhist ceremonies alive. This landmark series provides unprecedented access to a land of astonishing natural complexity, breathtaking landscapes, rare and surprising wildlife and colorful people.

Planet Earth
Pole to Pole - This episode looks at our planet as a whole and considers the key factors that have shaped its natural history. Without freshwater there is no life on land, while the sun dominates the lives of all animals and plants on Earth and defines their habitats.

Mountains - This program explains the geological and volcanic forces that shaped the land and its mountain chains. Humans like to think that once they've climbed a peak, they have somehow conquered it. But they can only ever be visitors to this hostile world.

Fresh Water - Just three percent of the Planet's water is fresh water and it is our most precious resource. Where it flows or falls it controls the distribution of all terrestrial life. This episode follows the descent of rivers from their mountain sources to the sea, and showcases the unique and dramatic wildlife found within its unexplored waters.

Caves - Caves are one of the only habitats not directly driven by sunlight, but this doesn't mean there is no wildlife. This episode probes the mysterious, perpetual darkness and reveals the unknown underground world of caves, caverns and tunnels.

Deserts - When astronauts peer down on Planet Earth, the one environment they all notice are the deserts, which make up a staggering 30 per cent of the land's surface. From space they look empty and lifeless. A closer look reveals a very different picture...

Ice Worlds - A journey to the polar extremes of our planet, where for most of the year the Arctic and Antarctic are locked in ice. As the sun abandons one pole and journeys to the other, these frozen worlds undergo the most extreme seasonal transformation on the planet...

Great Plains - The vast open wildernesses of African savannah, Asian steppe, Arctic tundra and North American prairie are the great plains of the planet. Together they cover more than a quarter of the land on Earth and one living thing is at their heart - grass.

Jungles - Beautiful floating aerial shots introduce the world's most spectacular forest vistas and high-definition cameras enable unprecedented views of the species that live on the dark jungle floor.

Shallow Seas - The newly discovered coral reefs in tropical Indonesia reveal that they are one of the richest in the world. They are home to fantasy-like creatures - such as the head-butting pygmy seahorse, the flashing 'electric' clam and bands of 30-strong sea snakes...

Seasonal Forests - From the evergreen forests of the frozen North to the deciduous dry forests of the Equator, Seasonal Forests reveals the greatest woodlands on earth.

Ocean Deep - Oceans cover two-thirds of the planet, yet largely remain unexplored. For animals that dwell on the surface or within the deepest abyss, it's finding food and conserving energy that is paramount. Planet Earth travels the world to reveal the extraordinary lengths life takes in its bid to survive this immense and barren realm.

Galapagos
Born Of Fire - The series begins with the birth of the islands and an exploration of what makes them unique. They were born out of volcanoes and are plumbed directly into the heart of the planet - 1,000 km off South America they are at the centre of many different ocean currents which bring an extraordinary mix of life to their shores and they are constantly changing.

This is one of the most volcanically active regions on earth with well over 60 eruptions in the last 200 years. The team captured the latest eruption of Sierra Negra when a huge column of smoke was cast in the sky and over a million cubic metres of lava were shed per hour on the first day.

As for the wildlife, the mixture of cold and warm waters support a wide range of marine creatures, including vast shoals of hammer-head sharks and the distinctive Galapagos garden eels. For land animals, getting to Galapágos is a lot tougher. Those that have made it had to cross the open ocean on rafts of vegetation, swept out from the mainland on flash floods.

The Islands That Changed The World - When Charles Darwin visited the Galapágos Islands on 15 September 1835, his experiences and studies of the unique environment would change the understanding of life on Earth. With dramatic reconstruction and stunning wildlife images, Galápagos explores the hidden side of the islands, revealing why, more than any other place, they are a showcase for evolution.

Through their movement on continental plates, they have spread into a group of islands each with its own character, ocean currents and climate. Life on the islands has been forced to adapt to change or die.

Tortoise shells have changed shape to fit the island they inhabit; flowers have become yellow to attract the only bee that made it here; finches have turned into warblers; and cormorants have lost the power of flight - trading it for streamlining and a magical life searching for fish in the sparkling Galapágos waters.

But not all life here is confined to the Galapágos. Frigate birds come from miles around, sperm whales visit the waters to breed and human visitors also come to see the environment that changed the course of history.

Forces of Nature - The geological forces at work in Galapágos are complex and unpredictable; so too are the many ocean currents that unite here.

Among the 13 islands and over a hundred rocky outcrops and islets, nowhere is more unforgiving and more unpredict¬able than the island of Fernandina, crowned by the most active of all volcanoes. Yet female land iguanas are forced to climb over 1,000 metres to its summit to find the only warm, soft sandy patches in which to lay their eggs.

The ever-changing islands, with eruptions occurring every few years, make it hard to find a foothold. But mangroves are inventive pioneers, their salt-tolerant seeds settling on unforgiving lava terrain to create dense labyrinths of vegeta¬tion which are crucial nurseries for fish, offering precious shade from the equatorial sun. Even on the most exposed shorelines, fur seals find daytime shelter in lava grottos, formed by volcanic lava flows.

The remotest island, Roca Redonda, is little more than 300 metres tall but it still forms an important platform for nesting seabirds. Like all the other islands, under-sea exploration reveals that it's just the summit of an enormous undersea volcano.

Ganges
Daughter of the Mountains - High in the cold peaks of the Himalayas is the sacred source of the river Ganges. This is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscapes on Earth. We follow the river's journey to the lush foothills, where our superb natural history photography captures the last wild herds of elephants that live by the riverbank, as well as tigers, otters and peacocks.
River of Life - We continue downstream, to the fertile central plains of the Ganges and her tributaries. Travelling through 5,000 years of civilisation, we visit one of the oldest and most sacred cities in the world, Varanasi. Whilst Sarus cranes and troops of macaques thrive on these plains, other animals - such as the unique Gangetic river dolphins and gharial crocodiles - struggle to survive here.

The Tiger's Realm - We enter the teeming delta, where the river Ganges meets the sea. Here modern cities such as Calcutta join with the ancient swamps of the Sunderbans. This amazingly diverse wetland, barely filmed before, is home to giant lizards, man-eating crocodiles and forests full of monkeys. Here the tiger is still king, and man is on the menu.

Wild China
The Great Rice Bowl - Eight times the size of the UK and bathed in a humid sub-tropical climate, southern China is a vast land of endless hills and glistening emerald rice paddies. In the far south-western province of Yunnan, the hillsides have been carved over many centuries into a spectacular array of rice terraces spanning two thousand metres vertically from the mountain tops to the floor of the Red River valley. This is quintessential rural China - a landscape where pyjama-clad peasants still follow wooden ploughs pulled by steaming water buffaloes on the hillsides, while in the lowlands noisy combine harvesters reap fields cultivated with the aid of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Further east in Guangxi province, men in conical bamboo hats dance for their tame cormorants, urging them to dive for fishes in the limpid waters of the Li River. In China, every aspect of rural life is closely bound up with nature. For the colourful Miao community of hilly Guizhou Province, the arrival of swallows in the spring is used to determine the start of the rice-planting season. The paddies provide not just rice, but also fishes and frogs which breed in the flooded fields. However, this is no wildlife paradise. In the Chinese countryside wildlife is seen as a resource to be used by people and the south has a long tradition of eating wild animals of all kinds. Nature, however, is tenacious and resourceful. In the more rugged hills where agriculture is impractical, monkeys still patrol the forested hillsides, beautifully-patterned venomous snakes hide in the undergrowth and bizarre giant salamanders lurk in the rocky stream beds. Almost half of southern China is occupied by limestone hills which have the peculiar property that the rock is dissolved by rainwater, creating the spectacular egg-carton landform known as karst. In Yunnan, the karst forms a spectacular maze of eroded pinnacles known as the Stone Forest - a famous tourist attraction. Beneath the surface of the karst lie vast caverns traversed by mysterious subterranean rivers which are home to blind cave fishes. China contains thousands of kilometres of subterranean passageways, often of vast dimensions and filled with glittering arrays of stalactites and stalagmites. Much of this spectacular underworld is only now beginning to be explored by adventure-seeking cavers. The caves shelter huge colonies of nesting swifts as well as bats, including one remarkable species which specializes in catching fishes from the local rivers, while rare black leaf monkeys clamber along tiny ledges in the darkness in search of safe sleeping-places. East of the karst lies a vast lowland area known as 'the land of fish and rice', bordered by the spectacular sandstone pinnacles of Zhangjiajie and the soaring granite mountains of the Huang Shan, festooned with thousand-year old pine trees. Recently, nature reserves have been established in this area to protect endangered creatures such as the dwarf Chinese alligator and to safeguard vast flocks of water birds, such as tundra swans and rare Siberian cranes, which find a winter haven in the relatively warm southern lakes.

The Forests of Shangri La - Hidden beneath billowing clouds, in China's remote south west, are perhaps the richest natural treasures in all China. The snow-capped Hengduan Mountains - an easterly extension of the Himalaya - sweep down across the Tibet border into northern Yunnan Province as a series of towering north-south aligned ridges. They were formed as part of the massive uplifting of rock strata along the length of the Himalayan chain when the Indian subcontinent crashed northwards into Asia as a result of continental drift. Between the Hengduan Mountain ridges run three great parallel valleys which channel the three great rivers of tropical south-east Asia: the Salween, the Mekong and the Yangtze. Between them, the mountains and rivers form effective barriers to the east-west movements of animals and plants, providing perfect conditions for animals and plants to evolve into unique and distinctive forms, each confined within its own valley. However, the valleys have had an even more profound effect on the local ecology. They act as funnels drawing the warm moisture-laden winds of the South Asian monsoon northwards, deep into the heart of the mountains. As a result, valleys way to the north of the tropics are cloaked in luxuriant vegetation - a unique mix of tropical jungle trees, typical mountain species such as rhododendrons and camellias and vast stands of fast-growing bamboos which are attacked by peculiar burrowing bamboo rats. This unexpected jungle paradise is home to dazzling birds, such as golden pheasants; jewel-like sunbirds and the extraordinarily colourful Temminck's tragopan with its peculiar peek-a-boo courtship display. In the treetops Gibbons sing their haunting songs to the dawn and monkeys compete for fruit with giant tree squirrels. In their upper reaches, where the altitude produces more pronounced seasonal changes, the valleys take on a very different character. Here are deciduous woodlands filled with colourful flowers: azaleas, forsythias, clematis, dogwoods and polyanthus. Many of these are now well-known to gardeners in the West, thanks to the efforts of pioneering botanists in the late 19th and early 20th Century who braved the river torrents to collect specimens of Chinese plants for sale in Europe and whose reports of paradise-like valleys lost among the mountains gave rise to legends of Shangri-La. Best known of these was Joseph Rock - a swashbuckling Indiana Jones like character who made a remarkable record of his travels including some of the earliest known botanical photographs in colour. Rock also filmed his party crossing river torrents on rope 'death-slides'. Local tribal people still cross the rivers in this way, carrying livestock and other produce between their home village and the local markets, although these days wire-hawsers have supplanted the old hemp ropes. Higher still on the mountain slopes, coniferous forests are home to richly-furred red pandas and yeti-like Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys which subsist almost entirely on an unlikely diet of feathery tree lichens. But the richest forests of all are those which lie to the south of the mountains, where the Salween and Mekong rivers finally escape the mountains. This is the real tropical jungle, home to China's last wild elephants - a popular tourist attraction - and colourful tribal minorities such as the Dai, who protect sacred forests surrounding their villages and celebrate their culture in an annual water-splashing ceremony when they anoint statues of the Buddha with river water.

Tibet - The size of Western Europe, the Tibetan plateau covers a quarter of China. This vast windswept wilderness is one of the world's most remote places, bounded by the glacier-strewn Himalayas. At 9km high and 2900km long, the Himalayas are the real Great Wall of China. Up on the Tibetan plateau the Himalayas dictate the nature and rhythms of life, creating a world where the air is thin, snow falls in summer, and persistent winds and storms rip across the hauntingly beautiful landscape. This is a land of superlatives - with the world's loftiest mountains and monasteries, its highest-dwelling creatures and its deepest gorges. But this brutal region is home to incredible wildlife, such as the rare chiru. When discovered by travellers in the Middle Ages, the dazzling horns of these antelopes prompted tales of unicorns. Hunted for their fine fur, known as 'shahtoosh', in the last century chiru were driven to near extinction. Today there is a ban on poaching but they are still difficult to find since the area where they live, the Chang Tang, is so vast and remote. But we were able to film their spectacular rut, where the males joust like fencers in temperatures that plummet to minus 40oC, and where the air is so thin that just breathing is a challenge. Here brown bear and the crafty Tibetan fox can be seen hunting the rabbit-like pikas, and herds of formidable wild yak migrate endlessly across the vast open spaces, sure footed and totally at home in the ice and snow. Meanwhile the argali sheep, the world's largest with its dramatic spiralling horns, gather together in winter to endure the worst weather on the planet. There are more large creatures here than anywhere else in China, but also some remarkable miniature ones that have managed to survive in this uniquely inhospitable environment. Up on the slopes of Everest the highest predators on earth - jumping spiders - hunt for springtails. The Chinese call these gymnastic predators 'fly tigers'. The plateau is littered with hot springs that bubble and belch clouds of sulphurous steam. Downstream the springs turn into warm-flowing rivers which are patrolled by cold blooded snakes that wait patiently in the water, their heads bobbing like fishing floats, for an unsuspecting fish. Thanks to the hot springs these are the highest dwelling snakes in the world. Tibet not only has unique and extraordinary creatures, it also has a unique culture, defined by a union of ancient shamanic beliefs and over one thousand years of Buddhism. This hybrid religion has nurtured remarkable beliefs: life is respected, and good deeds to living creatures are reckoned to assure a better rebirth, and eventual enlightenment. The monasteries are the engines that drive this extraordinary culture. The land is imbued with magic, and there are even secret kingdoms that have been rendered invisible. We were able to film the Yarlung Gorge, 3 times as deep as the Grand Canyon and rarely seen by outsiders. Tibetan Buddhism and the beliefs of millions are focused on Mount Kailash - a remote mountain in the far west of Tibet where culture and landscape converge. Buddha achieved enlightenment here, and four major rivers flow from this region. Tibet's many glaciers and rivers and its impact on the weather systems of Asia and the Indian subcontinent means this landscape and ancient culture provides a crucial life support system for much of the planet.

Beyond the Great Wall - The Great Wall of China was built by the ancient Chinese emperors to keep out the fierce warrior tribes that live to the north. Their lands were considered to be hostile and uninhabitable. Conditions in northern China can be severe, with terrible Siberian winters and searing, hot, stormy deserts. These conditions have shaped the characters of some of China's most rugged and fascinating people and wildlife. North-east China still has dense forests with Wild Boar and just a few Siberian tigers, the world's largest cat. Ethnic minorities like the Hezhe people fish through holes in the ice, and surprisingly, a handful of people still herd reindeer. The frozen forests give way to great grasslands, home to over 5 million Mongolians. Their ancestor, Genghis Kahn, left a legacy of horsemanship which is unrivalled anywhere in the world. We travel through the ancient capital of Xanadu and join the annual summer horse-racing festival of Nadam before continuing on to the beginning of China's vast deserts. Here, the Great Wall finally comes to an end after 5000 winding kilometres at the fortress of Jiayuguan. Beyond this place are deserts for hundreds of miles, including the world's largest shifting sand desert - the Taklamakan, whose name means 'You go in and you never come out'. People risked their lives to cross these deserts to get their hands on valuable Chinese silk, and the routes the traders took became known as the Silk Road. Great fortunes and mighty kingdoms were built on trade in silk, and incredibly, it all comes from the woven cocoon of a humble little insect: the Silk worm. To get the silk across the desert and out of China along this famous trade route was only possible with the aide of a desert specialist animal: the camel. Because they can carry heavy loads across sandy deserts, and need to drink only every few weeks, they were the perfect ally. Great towns were built as trading posts and some, like Turpan, survive today. Turpan is famous as an oasis town that brings water from distant mountains, through underground tunnels that were built thousands of years ago. The water allows the growth of grapes, which this region is famous for. But not all Silk Road towns endured as well as Turpan - many are just ghost towns, swallowed back up by the desert. The last town on the trade routes before leaving China for central Asia is Kashgar which is still a thriving market town. The people here hardly look Chinese, and many live in China's remotest corners. Nomadic Kazakhs herd their livestock in the Heavenly Mountains, but when winter comes, they pack up their tents and move down into the desert regions of the Junggar Basin, the westernmost part of the Great Gobi desert. Snow blankets the desert in winter, and the Kazakhs' livestock must compete with wild animals for the sparse grass that they eat. This is home to some of the world's last wild horses, as well as gazelles and even wild hamsters! The Kazakhs here continue 6000 years of tradition of hunting with Golden Eagles, but their lives are beginning to change is this rapidly modernising country. Enormous cities, like Harbin, now protect modern Chinese from the harshness of China's northern climates. Each year, the Harbin Ice Festival is a chance to celebrate the beauty of the north. The Chinese do it in their own special style: giant ice-carving competitions covered in neon lights turn the city into a Technicolor wonderland.

Land of the Dragon - While much of western China is mountainous and relatively thinly populated, the eastern side, between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, is a place of great cities, of heavy industrialization and intensive agriculture. China's heartland with its predominantly Han ethnic population is the centre of a five thousand year old civilization which has created landmarks such as the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and Beijing's Olympic Stadium. But this densely populated area is also home to some of China's most charismatic creatures. The elusive giant panda has always been considered incredibly tricky to film in the wild. It's so secretive and sensitive to noise that researchers have barely caught a glimpse of one as it moves swiftly through the dense bamboo. However we were able to film not only pandas foraging for frozen bamboo leaves in the snow covered mountains of the Qinling Mountains, but also the entire courtship and mating rituals of these wonderful creatures, never filmed before. The sounds were like Chewbacca in a pub brawl! We were also able to film the rare golden snub-nosed monkey and the formidable and aggressive golden takin - a fabulous creature said to be the original owner of the Golden Fleece. When male takin clash horns during their rut, the sound reverberates around the mountains like a gunshot. Since the 1950s, China has undergone massive development and change, bringing many environmental problems. Following a century of aggression from outside forces, Chairman Mao sought to re-build China's dignity. Faced with massive logistical problems, Mao's first concern was to feed the Chinese population. His policies replaced the ancient wisdom of 'harmony between man and nature' with a new dictum: 'man must conquer nature'. Making China self reliant in steel production resulted in 10% of China's forest being felled, causing long term ecological damage. But behind the politics, the relationship of the Chinese to their environment and its creatures is in fact deep, complex, and full of surprises. A visit to a Chinese medicine shop reveals the extraordinary means they will use in an attempt to balance the 'ying and yang' forces within the body and achieve a harmonious balance in the universe. Other natural forces are more tangible, such as the Yellow and Yangtze rivers which helped to shape and nurture Chinese civilisation. The raging torrent of the Yellow River's Hukuo falls are evidence of the massive forces that, once they had been tamed, brought fertility to their fields. The Chinese believed the rivers were carved by dragons, and respect for the dragon may have contributed to protecting the rare Chinese alligator, which still survives around the Yangtze. And there are further success stories. In 1982 there were just seven crested ibis left in the world, but following a conservation programme there are now 500. Such conservation successes are signs of a gradual turnaround in attitudes towards wildlife and the environment which suggest a return to the ancient concept of harmony with nature - offering a glimmer of hope for the future of wild China.

Crowded Coasts - From the eastern end of the Great Wall, China's coast spans 14,500 kilometres and more than five thousand years of history. This is a place of huge contrasts: futuristic modern cities jostling traditional seaweed-thatched villages, ancient tea terraces and wild wetlands where rare animals still survive. Each year, endangered red-crowned cranes make an epic journey along the coast between their northern breeding grounds and their winter refuge close to Shanghai. Along their route they skirt the shallow Bohai Gulf where traditional seaside communities collect shellfish from the fertile mud and cultivate vast seaweed farms which they share with wild swans, known as 'winter angels'. Out in the gulf, rocky Shedao Island is infested with venomous snakes lying ambush for the twice-yearly influx of migrating birds, which use the island as a resting point. The gulf waters are enriched by fertile sediment from the Yellow River, boosted by agricultural fertilizers which stimulate the growth of plankton, in turn providing food for plagues of jellyfish. Each summer, armadas of fishing boats set nets to trap the jellyfish, which in China are eaten as a delicacy. Heading south along the coast, the Dafeng salt marsh reserve is home to the remarkable water-loving Milu deer, rescued from the brink of extinction in the 19th Century when a small herd was established in England's Woburn Abbey. Returned to the wild in China they now flourish under strict government protection. Beyond the Yangtze River estuary lies the vast city of Shanghai - China's financial capital. On nearby Chongming Island, traditional bird hunters use their skills to lure migrant wading birds into their traps - allowing them to be weighed, measured and fitted with identification tags as part of an ambitious conservation project. South of Shanghai, the cloud-wreathed granite mountains of Fujian Province are home to one of China's oldest tea-growing cultures, that of the Kejia people. The Kejia live in circular communal houses where they produce fine oolong, or 'black dragon' teas. Ancient tea-trading routes follow the coast to ports from which junk-rigged sailing ships once plied the world's oceans. These are treacherous waters, battered by tropical cyclones. Lying at the outer margins of the Pearl River estuary, Hong Kong's sheltered deep-water harbour provides the best-protected anchorage in southern China, boosting its fortunes as a trading centre. Surprisingly, it is also China's foremost bird sanctuary - sheltering vast numbers of tropical migrants, including a quarter of the world's black-faced spoonbills. The outer estuary is also home to China's last remaining - and highly protected - White Dolphins. South of Hong Kong lies the glittering turquoise expanse of the South China sea, studded with islands and remote coral reefs. Closer to the mainland, most of the coral has been damaged and the reefs severely over fished, though there are now efforts being made to replant coastal mangroves and protect remaining fish stocks. At the southern limit of China's coast lies the tropical paradise island of Hainan - a favourite with Chinese holidaymakers. Here macaque monkeys are protected for the amusement of tourists, and ancient calligraphy carved into the rocks announces the 'end of the world' - China's final frontier. The issues that face China today, increasing pressures on resources, quality of environment and living space, are those that face us all. If there is any country in the world equipped to solve environmental problems on a vast scale it has to be China, with its tremendous human resources and powerful political control. The path it chooses will affect not just its own people and its natural environment, but the rest of the world too.

Planet Earth
"...jaw-dropping television from start to finish." - Sunday Express

"...sure to be the most dramatic and talked-about TV event of the year ... it might not be an overstatement to suggest that this series is so breathtaking that some viewers could find themselves at serious risk of respiratory failure." - Michael Holden, Mail On Sunday

"One programme towers head and shoulders above everything else tonight ... this is the most awesomely spectacular and wide-ranging natural history series to have hit our screens, the crowning achievement of the BBC's Natural History Unit ... Even on a non-HD screen, these images look very special. There's a clarity and depth that is closer to what we expect to see in a cinema ... With the right kind - and size - of HD TV screen, the effect is amazing." - Nigel Andrew, Daily Mail

"...it really isn't a show you can watch any less than twice. On the third viewing, I note, my boggling about the magnitude of Nature (Herds! Shoals! Teeth! Wing! Tundra!) had shifted, solipstically, to boggling about the magnitude of the humans. Dear God, but some effort has been put into this series. However amazing the creatures are that we witnessed, this is also a programme about how brilliant us guys - people - are." - Caitlin Moran, The Times

"Every few years we are treated to a series so compelling that it puts all other shows in the shade ... Every single second of these epic new films is a joy to behold ... mindblowing..." -Daily Mirror

"Planet Earth is the BBC's Natural History Unit at its biggest and boldest." - Sally Kinnes, Sunday Times

"This is the BBC doing what it does best - beautifully made, ambitious programmes fronted by a genuine, world-class expert. If I were looking forward to it any more, I would need a knife and fork for it." - Richard Hammond, Daily Mirror

"These programmes should be compulsory viewing for every school child, before they ... start to believe that it does not matter what happens to other species on this planet."- Philip Coggan, Financial Times

"...marvellous to look at ... breathtakingly beautiful photography..." - Peter Paterson, Daily Mail

"Stirring, hugely enjoyable and likely to be a deservedly massive hit ... almost every scene gained an instant place in television history." - James Walton, Daily Telegraph

"...sets a new benchmark in broadcasting ... an exquisite feast, from the opening sequence ... a natural history treat complimented expertly, as ever, by David Attenborough's polished commentary." - Robin McKie, Observer

"...filmed with such crispness and clarity that even my knackered old television, which I suspect once belonged to John Logie Baird himself, looked as if it had secretly been upgraded for high-definition broadcasts." - Thomas Sutcliffe, Independent

"...essential viewing ... crammed with grandeur ... and even humour." - Karl French, Financial Times

"Stunning footage ... it was like a snapshot of our planet in action, from its continental weather systems to its tiniest pond-life and, without trying, it instilled a deep sense of awe and respect. With a uniquely intelligent and cliché-free voiceover from David Attenborough, Planet Earth did exactly what good TV should. It showed us things we'd never get a chance to see otherwise, and left us feeling grateful for the experience. It also reminded us that the real world can be as amazing as anything conjured up by computer graphics ... a vivid reminder of why we all need to start caring, now."- Matt Baylis, Daily Express

"...the crowning glory of David Attenborough's extraordinary career." - David Chater, The Times

Galapagos
"...a quite brilliant new wildlife seriesa quite brilliant new wildlife series ... What an array of truly bizarre creatures..." - Express On Sunday

"...Breathtaking landscapes and the incredible tameness of the islands' wildlife made perfect backdrops for the BBC's new three-part series, Galapágos..." Stuart Winter, Express On Sunday "...stunning..." -People

"Galapágos was a revelation. Living up to the high standards of natural-history camerawork, this had a painterly beauty, but its defining character was the narration of Tilda Swinton, which treated the words as if they were poetry and gave the whole film a haunting feel ... This documentary also showed that geography is not a dusty thing of latitudes and isobars, but the study of a profound mystery." - Daily Telegraph

"Essentially a well-shot nature programme with a bit of history thrown in..." -Guardian

"Galapágos works on two levels - three if you count the drama-documentary on the arrival of Charles Darwin that ... commences just a few minutes before this breathtaking opening instalment concludes. At its simplest it is a story, rather well and thoroughly told, of the geology and natural history of the Galapágos Islands ... we may be familiar with the diversity of the animals - finches, tortoises, iguanas - but we have never before seen them photographed in such intimate, crisp, digital clarity. This first episode has some especially striking sequences of sea lions fighting and surfing, of one cutting through a school of fish, and an eerie one of iguanas diving 30 feet to graze on algae on the ocean floor. This is glorious to behold." - Financial Times

Ganges
"Extraordinary cinematography ... This film is a classic." - National Geographic

"Ganges is simply stunning, one of the finest efforts of the finest TV natural history unit in the world." - Paul Hoggart, The Times

"This is television documentary-making at its sumptuous best. The camera lingers lazily on its subjects, both animal and human, while the film stock's colours are turned up to maximum intensity. The end result is an intelligently made visual treat and an intriguing tribute to one of the world's greatest rivers."
- Robin McKie, Observer

"...an outstanding travelogue ... Lyrically written and beautifully filmed..." - Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"The photography ... is mind-blowing, allowing for a near-synaesthesic experience; the Indian tourist board should be delighted." - Ali Catterall, Guardian

"The filming was spectacular, real eyeball ecstasy..." - AA Gill, Sunday Times

"There is nothing groundbreaking ... It merely does what the BBC's Natural History Unit does better than anyone else - it takes you to a breathtakingly beautiful part of the world and shows you sights that only a fortunate few are ever likely to see in person ... it films an astounding richness of people and wildlife, from the snow leopards of the Himalayas to the ridiculous monkeys of Rishikesh. If you are in the right frame of mind, it is the most beautiful, exotic and restful programme of the week."- David Chater, The Times

"A cross between travelogue and natural history film, this series is irresistible for the armchair traveller ... gorgeous..." - Anna Frame, Daily Express

"If you like breathtaking scenery, you're in for a treat ... the filmmakers have made an exquisite programme, where even a clump of sliding mud looks stunning. All it would take is a David Attenborough voiceover and you could be watching Planet Earth. OK, you may learn more about animals and plants from ol' Davey boy, but did Planet Earth have cheeky macaque monkeys that pull on people's trousers to beg for food and look so adorable you want to get the next flight to India? Did it heck!" - Jane Simon, Daily Mirror

"...this programme is a cinematographic treat bringing knowledge and understanding of an often overlooked area." - Katie Toms, Observer

When Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps was asked during the 2008 Beijing Olympics what he does to unwind, he replied, "Planet Earth, the documentary, is pretty much all I've been watching."