Wild China: Land of the Red Panda, Worker Cormorants, Fishing Bats

 Before there was such a thing as a Western capitalistic democracy, before there was a Peoples Republic of China, before there was Tienanmen Square there was the land. 
In the BBC's astonishing documentary series "Wild China" you see the land, the animals, the people in a way which even at his  advanced age stunned the Phantom. It is still possible to be dazzled,  even in near senility. As you get older, it's harder to be really thrilled because you've seen so much before, but this series does it time and again.

It is almost, but not quite, enough to make the Phantom think he might actually want to go to China some day. Then reason takes hold, and the Phantom realizes: No. It is better to sit comfortably at home in New Hampshire and watch what other people have brought you.

 In an early episode, we see  men using trained cormorants to fish. The birds have a string tied around their necks so they cannot swallow the fish, but after seven returns to the boat bearing the fish they cannot swallow, they refuse to go out again until the string has been removed and they are fed a fish they can swallow.

There are cormorants floating and diving just off Plaice Cove Beach, New Hampshire,  where the Phantom runs his dog in the morning,  and they dive and disappear and surface twenty yards off but they are self employed and can keep every fish they get.

Those Chinese cormorants need a union. 

The most fantastic visuals are the fishing bats, who were filmed at night plucking minnows from just below the surface of the lakes, like eagles swooping in. You can see their  arm bones through their translucent wings and the splashed drops of water. The Phantom is an ardent nature show watcher, but nothing has ever equaled the sequence of these bats--except maybe that scene where the shark explodes through the surface of the water to get the unsuspecting fur seal floating there.

 And then there is the red panda. This creature exists nowhere else on the planet and he eats bamboo, like other pandas, but he looks more like a raccoon and is more closely related to the skunk than to the bear, but he is a wonderful creature. 

And there are snub nosed monkeys who live in mountainous areas where it snows a lot and they live on a sort of moss which is half plant and half fungus. 
And there are the terraced mountains and hills where the people grow rice, and there are villagers who live on either side of the "Angry River" which surges down a ravine and the only way across is by a zip line the villagers use, carrying goats and other animals to markets on either side of the chasm. 

The Phantom is only half way through the second episode of a six part series. If there is nothing more remarkable in the remaining episodes, this still ranks as one of the most spectacular nature shows ever--on a level with "Life Underground" and "Blue Planet."  

No American school child should be allowed to go through 12 years of schooling without being shown these magnificent films. It will change them forever. Can you imagine some kid from inner city Baltimore coming face to face with a red panda?