Episode 2
Anita Rani and Justin Rowlatt continue their epic car journeys across China, heading for their final destination, the financial mega-city of Shanghai.
Anita Rani and Justin Rowlatt continue their epic car journeys across China, heading for their final destination, the financial mega-city of Shanghai. Along the way, they navigate congested cities and winding mountain roads to explore how the country's economic growth, symbolised by its booming car industry, is affecting people's lives.
On her route through the industrialised east, Anita visits some of the country's most sophisticated and luxurious cities. In Qingdao, she discovers a little piece of the Loire Valley: a Chinese wine chateau with an accompanying vineyard. In Hangzhou, she joins a couple on their wedding day, complete with a luxury car fleet, and finds out how weddings have changed since the couple's grandparents were married in the 1960s.
Meanwhile, Justin continues his epic journey through the poor, remote Chinese countryside in his loaf-shaped bread van. He bumps rather precariously up the potholed Aizhai Highway, one of China's most dangerous roads, and visits the brand new engineering marvel of the Aizhai Bridge. He explores the life of farmers from the Miao ethnic minority deep in the Hunan countryside, and tries to get to the bottom of Mao Zedong's legacy in contemporary China.
On the final leg of their journey across China, Anita and Justin discover a country that has developed rapidly, raising millions out of poverty, but which faces important challenges: a lack of healthcare and support for the vulnerable, pollution, and growing inequality.
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Read about the challenge of getting Justin's bread van on the road, on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TV blog.
Clips
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Anita Rani is dared to try raw sea cucumber
Duration: 04:20
'I wasn’t expecting this in Communist China'
'It was the first time I’d ever met someone who couldn’t remember how many cars they had – let alone how many super cars'
Μύ
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Justin Rowlatt |
Presenter | Anita Rani |
Executive Producer | Sam Bagnall |
Producer | Olly Bootle |
Director | Olly Bootle |
Broadcasts
- Sun 16 Sep 2012 20:05Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD & Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two
- Tue 18 Sep 2012 23:20Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two Wales & England only
- Tue 18 Sep 2012 23:50Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two Scotland & Northern Ireland only
- Fri 21 Sep 2012 22:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD
- Tue 9 Oct 2012 02:15
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