Everywhere you turn to and everything you watch on TV it's quite evident that the world is watching China right now. The Beijing Olympic Games have been making the news each day and even in the weeks leading up to the games there was much controversy and hype. It goes without saying that China isn't exactly everyone's favorite country thanks to their policies, human rights violations, and poor stance on environmental issues; but set that all aside for a moment. Let's take a look at the country as it is, as it used to be, and the way nature intended it.

2008's Wild China is yet another fascinating documentary from the BBC whose prominence in the field is established with each and every outing. This particular documentary showcases China's rich manmade and natural history and it offers plenty of information on things you probably never knew about the country. One thing that you'll take away from this series will be that China is beautiful, exotic, and endangered. Many of its diverse ecosystems are on the brink of extinction and its China's booming population and copious amounts of pollution that are to blame. Each of the six hour long episodes explores a variety of topics from the jungles to caves and animals to people. If you think you know all about China from watching the news, think again.

Narrated by Bernard Hill (Theoden from Lord of the Rings), Wild China is more of a natural history series that focuses on the wildlife and fauna more than the people and culture, though there's quite a bit of that too. Hill's narration brings weight and a pleasant personality to the documentary though I must admit that the information thrown at you in each episode can become a tad tedious or drawn out. He has a slight monotone way of speaking that could easily lull you to sleep if you allow it. I'm not saying Wild China is bad by any stretch of the imagination; quite the opposite actually. All I'm saying is that the program is not as engaging as it could have been and Hill doesn't bring passion to the subject unlike what Iain Stewart did for Earth: The Biography. He simply narrates the material before him and speaks the facts and due to that the documentary suffers a little.

With that in mind it's important to know that the show is still entertaining and very fascinating. This is thanks to the cinematography and absolutely amazing natural moments that were caught on camera. Most every nature documentary features sights that your eyes will never behold in person but Wild China truly takes the cake. There's virtually no stone left unturned in China's backyard and a plethora of its endangered and rare species are captured on film in glorious detail.

The first episode gets things started appropriately with a brief introduction to China's diverse landscape, people, and wildlife. "Heart of the Dragon" takes us through the Karst Mountains, underground rivers, caverns, and goes on to talk about a small village living in harmony with rice fields cut right into the side of a mountain. It's a fascinating site to behold and Wild China allows an appropriate time for the beauty to sink in. One particularly impressive shot begins focused on a single farmer and pulls back to reveal the entire valley and full scope of the rice field. If you have never seen such a thing before your jaw will drop. From there the episode moves on to talk about the popular tourist attraction of cormorant fishing but rather than present it in that fashion, Hill talks about the relationship between the birds and the fishermen.

Equally interesting and just as varied in its offerings the second episode heads up to the Himalayas for some talk about Shangri-La. Hidden between the frozen peaks is a tropical jungle where a wide array of life has grown. While the episode can't quite capture everything within its hour long time frame the team did a great job of cramming as much in as possible. From pandas to strange flowers and even on to a colder environment filled with snub-nosed monkeys and red pandas there's quite a lot of ground covered here. The episode even goes on to talk about China's wild elephants and the effects of the encroaching human population on these regions.

From there Wild China goes on to talk about the starkly beautiful area of Tibet, Manchuria, the Yellow and Yangze rivers, and Eastern China. Each episode offers a variety of subject matter and is very structured in its content. In these documentaries you can expect an introduction to the region, a look at the natural aspects, a brief discussion about how the people live there, and what's being done to stabilize the otherwise endangered regions.

If you're looking for a solid documentary that looks at the natural wonders of China then this is definitely something to check out. Wild China is entertaining, informative, easy to get into, and it offers some absolutely stunning cinematography of China's landscape. Despite the quality of each episode Hill can drone on a bit at times during his narration. Even so he brings a certain tone to the experience that keeps the series nice and relaxing so it's not all bad. The BBC is renowned for their nature documentaries and it should be said that Wild China maintains that level of quality.

For the purposes of this DVD review the quality is being judged from a screener copy and not final retail product. Should the final product become available this review will be changed accordingly.

Wild China is presented on DVD in anamorphic widescreen and let me say that the video quality lives up to the beautiful cinematography. The wide landscapes and close-up shots of wildlife really ring through nicely on DVD. With that being said there is three hours of content on each disc and the quality suffers somewhat with a few moments where digital artifacts are noticeable. Grain also filters into the image quite a bit but it's not distracting; it's just noticeable. Despite these flaws the picture is very crisp, sharp, and vibrant which is what you'd want from a nature documentary.

This DVD comes with English 2.0 and 5.1 selections but considering this is a documentary series that's par for the course really. In all honesty this show didn't really need more than 2.0 to be successful though the 5.1 is a nice addition with some added ambient noise during the moments when Hill isn't talking. It's somewhat effective at creating a sense of immersion but even so the audio quality is relatively flat and not full presented on the rear channels. The quality of these recordings is exemplary with some real clarity that is on par with the video but the sound isn't quite as impressive.

Apart from some trailers the only feature you're going to find on this release of Wild China is "Hunting Dragons" (26:46). This featurette goes through the making of this series and talks at length about the twenty camera men, five hundred hours of shooting, and fifty trips that it took to put it all together. Edited together with clips from each of the six episodes this feature also offers some behind the scenes glimpses at what it took to shoot some of the more successful scenes. It also presents some personal commentary from some of the crew as they recant some of their experiences while on this journey with China.

There's a lot of controversy surrounding China and its policies but there's no denying the natural history of the region and beauty that flourishes there. With the focus on the wild elements Wild China is very successful. This documentary series from BBC is informative and breathtaking with some absolutely amazing moments and scenes captured on film. Put your opinions about China's government aside for a moment and look at the country's bounty of natural wonders. Recommended

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