Wild China revealed in stunning documentary

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Have you seen millions of fish leaping over stones and dams in order to get to their breeding sites? If you have, it must be at the northern shore of Qinghai Lake, China’s largest salt lake in Qinghai Province. It’s a sight of a miracle but also a revelation of the power of nature.

Naked carp trying to leap over a dam /CGTN Photo

Qinghai Lake is home to a unique species of carp found nowhere else in the world – the naked carp. Every year, from late May to mid August, millions of carps leave Qinghai Lake and embark on an epic journey in search of their spawning ground. This spectacular migration was something that CGTN’s Wild Wonders filming crew simply couldn’t afford to miss.

Naked carps swimming upstream to their spawning site /CGTN Photo

Although naked carps are adapted to life in the salty waters of Qinghai Lake, they are dependent on fresh water for breeding and spawning. To bring on the next generation, they have to return to the pristine streams where they themselves were spawned.

Qinghai Lake /CGTN Photo

It’s a yearly odyssey, full of challenges and dangers. But for these intrepid fish, the will to bring forth new life is stronger than any of these obstacles.

Naked carps surviving the journey /CGTN Photo

Superbly captured on screen by the Wild Wonders team, these amazing creatures tackle white waters and rapids, breach huge dams and dodge the beaks of their deadly enemies, the thousands of migratory birds who gather on the Bird Island of Qinghai Lake for refueling every summer.

Migratory birds on Bird Island of Qinghai Lake /CGTN Photo

Though fish and bird might be natural enemies in this battle for survival, such is the complexity of life that both depend on each other. Were it not for the droppings of these birds there would be no food for the algae that supports the crustaceans upon which the fish depend.

Birds eating fish /CGTN Photo

And what’s captured by the team not only shows that life is intertwined in the deep waters of Qinghai Lake but also, on the mountain heights, across the vast deserts, and into the highest wildness.

Mountains in northwestern China /CGTN Photo

Many other tales of survival against the odds, of the miraculous, complex and interdependent web of life linking everything are being told in Wild Wonders, the first nature documentary series ever in China, available today on CGTN.