DVD. Global Treasures. 10 Minutes. The temple monastery of Xumi-Fushou-Miao is one of the most impressive buildings in Chengde, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Overall, there are eight "outer-temple-monasteries" each of them with its own architectural style. The temple was built in 1780 to mark the visit to China of a senior Tibetan religious dignitary, the sixth Panchen Lama, the first in history to visit China. It is a replica of what was his own monastery in Tibet. The construction of this monastery played an important role in the diplomatic relationship between the Chinese Emperor, Quing Long, and Tibet. The multi-level roofs of Xumi-Fushou-Miao are of the highest aesthetic and artistic finesse. Numerous enchanting ornaments adorn the splendid roofs of these captivating temples. A total of eight gold-plated dragons grace the ridges and further roofs are decorated with traditional Tibetan portrayals of animals, such as elephants and a variety of mythical beasts. Xumi-Fushou-Miao monastery is an impressive example of late 18th century Chinese architecture.

DVD. Global Treasures. 10 Minutes. The famous discoverer Marco Polo called the Chinese city of Suzhou, `The Venice of the East'. But Suzhou is more famous for its gardens Beautiful bridges span across the canals while run down houses indicate the meager financial resources of their inhabitants. The city's more impressive and elegant buildings date back to its long and glorious past, such as the town gate and Pan Men Wall. The Garden Of Politics For The Simple Man is one of the four most popular gardens in China and was designed according to the wishes of an important mandarin between the years 1522 and 1566. The Garden Of The Master Of The Nets is somewhat smaller, nevertheless it is considered to be a gem of Chinese garden design that dates back to the 12th century. Founded by Abbot Xu Taishi in the 16th century, The Garden Of Rest is also one of the country's most beautiful gardens. The Chinese garden is full of complex history and art that manifests itself as a sanctuary of simple harmony and peace and nowhere is this more true than in the gardens of Suzhou.

DVD. Through newly-produced film footage and still photos, this unique documentary tells the story of Qin Shi Huang Di, the third century emperor of China. The video explores the ruler's role in unifying the country and building the Great Wall, and then brings you on a tour of his elaborate burial complex. This breathtaking IMAX film presents the history of China's first Emperor, Qin, who reigned during the third century B.C. Gatefold jacket includes maps, timeline and other historical information. Narrated by Christopher Plummer. One analog track is in English; the other is in Mandarin. The production of this laserdisc was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from Simmons College. This is the only Liu Hao Xue video.

DVD. Global Treasures. 10 Minutes. A dignified pavilion rises behind the main entrance of the magnificent Ming Necropolis, which is located 50km north west of Beijing. Seven kilometers long, the holy avenue of the Ming Necropolis is lined with numerous beautiful stone figures. Ding Ling, the mausoleum of the 13th Ming Emperor, Wanli, is one of three restored grave sites where elegant stairs, decorated with beautiful stone masonry, lead up to the terrestrial section of the mausoleum. According to ancient Chinese tradition, an earthly section had to be built for the soul of the dead, in which the soul would be comforted. For this reason, the magnificent buildings and great halls were designed in the style of the emperor's palace. The expenditure for the royal funerals was without limit and it took almost six years and around 30,000 workers to build the grave complex for Emperor Wanli. Chang Ling is the largest mausoleum of the Necropolis and was built for Emperor Yongle who reigned during the beginning of the 15th century. But this extremely well restored grave site has a darker side to it: together with the Emperor, it is believed that sixteen living concubines were buried in this grave.

DVD. Global Treasures. 10 Minutes. A few kilometres from the modern, pulsating and gigantic metropolis of Shanghai there is an idyllic mediaeval village, Zhou Zhuang, that is believed to have been the first `water village' in China. However, it was not until the middle of the 1980s that the picturesque village was added to the tourist map and since then its splendid old buildings and canals have been recognised as a truly magnificent treasure. The origin and founding of Zhou Zhuang dates back around nine hundred years. Due to its unique location the town has escaped war and plunder as only the local inhabitants knew their way around the labyrinth-like canals that once led into the small town. Free from battle and invasion it has managed to retain its age old Chinese charm right up until the present day. One of the most elegant monuments in Zhou Zhuang is located in the southern area of the town, the beautifully decorated and lovingly restored Quanfu Temple. A haven of peace and tranquillity that encapsulates the serene way of life of this captivating place.

DVD. Nature Wonders. 10 Minutes. Who Tee-Ow Shah is the sonorous Chinese name of the Tiger Leaping Gorge that is located around 100 kilometres from the town of Zhongdian, the gateway to Tibet. This impressive mountain kingdom is not only important due to its scenery but also to its history, as once a legendary battle took place in this region. In the 16th century, an army of Han Chinese and Naxi defeated an army from Tibet. It is believed that almost 200,000 soldiers were killed in the battle. The mighty cliffs of Tiger Leaping Gorge are 3,000 metres high and they form one of the deepest canyons in the world, with a length of around 15 kilometres. The impressive vegetation of the region is also quite eye-catching and more than 300 medicinal plants grow there. The highlight of any visit is the 'Golden Sand River', the Jinsha, the Canyon's most narrow point where the water flows between rock cliffs that are 1,000 metres high and where the view is simply breathtaking. The Jinsha River and the Tiger Leaping Gorge, together they create a beautiful and inspiring sight that is also full of adventure and excitement.

DVD. Nature Wonders. 10 Minutes. Even though the province of Yunnan in the southwest of China, it is one of the country's poorest regions. The Stone Forest of Shilin, whose bizarre rock formations rise up to 30 metres into the sky, is one of the country's most beautiful natural treasures. Erosion formed Yunnan's amazing natural works of art while the earth's crust began almost imperceptibly to rise, moving the forest's pinnacles higher into the sky. The Chinese created some extremely descriptive names for the various rocky areas of Yunnan Shilin such as `The Cluster of Pinnacles That Supports the Sky', just one of many colorful names given to the rock formations. During special holidays, the landscape is an atmospheric backdrop for the traditional wrestling and bullfights of the Sani people. The exceptional natural splendor and breathtaking diversity of the amazing natural trees of stone have transformed Shilin into one of China's most amazing and dramatic sightseeing destinations.

DVD. Vista Point. 26 Minutes. Kunming is located in the Chinese province of Yunnan in south west China. The Buddhist temple of Ykan Ton Si dates back to the Tang Dynasty. The design of the city's largest temple complex was influenced by many diverse ethnic groups. The highlight of the complex is a lake in the middle of which a number of bridges lead to an octagonal pavilion. The Temple Of Total Penetration (yes, that's it's name!) is a tranquil and peaceful haven amid the busy alleys of Kunming's old town. In the west of Yunnan Province there are magnificent views from Xi Shan Mountain across Dian Lake and nestling among the rocks there are numerous temples that were once the scene of ritual sacrifice. On the downward journey the temples loom larger and larger while earthenware images of Buddha depict various stages of life. Yunnan's most famous site is the unique Stone Forest of Shi Lin. Its limestone rock originated from a long since dried-up ocean when the elements set to work on creating its fantastic and bizarre forms. The most amazing formations were given dramatic names such as The Sea Of Fire, Dragon's Tooth and Heavenly Sword. Pagodas, columns and strange flowers appear to rise from the rock and to facilitate access, tunnels and paths have been cut into the rock face. The Venice Of The Far East is the nickname of the ancient Chinese city of Lijiang in the northwest of Yunnan Province. The picturesque centre of the old town of Dayan is an architectural gem. Three rivers and several small creeks flow through the historic cit and there are various splendid stone bridges date back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Buy Shan is a typical village of the region. Just as it was hundreds of years ago with farmers slowly leading their ox wagons through the village. The houses were built over a period of more than two hundred year between the Ming and Qing Dynasties in 14 and 16 A.D. Yunnan Province - place of simplicity, exquisite culture and spectacular natural wonders!

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places Guilin, in Guangxi Province, is famous for its scenic beauty, in which nature seems to imitate Chinese art in a remarkable way. Other districts too boast the extraordinary rock formations that are a feature of the area, set against the lakes and rivers. The region is the home to a number of the 56 ethnic minorities of China, with glimpses of the Yao and Tong peoples, of the spectacular Dragon Spine terraced hillsides where rice is grown in Longsheng Country and the thin ribbon of rushing water that forms the Longsheng Waterfall. The Music The music chosen for this tour of Guilin is played on traditional Chinese instruments. Performing the music are wind and string ensembles known as 'silk and bamboo', from their silk strings and bamboo pipes, and ensembles that also include percussion. Instruments given prominence include the dizi, a transverse bamboo flute, its characteristic timbre produced by a vibrating membrane over one of the holes, the yangqin, a Chinese dulcimer whose strings are struck with two bamboo sticks. Happy Family and Three Five Seven feature the Chinese shawm, or the suona, and the sheng, a free-reed mouth organ, can be heard in the music that accompanies Longsheng Waterfall. Traditional Chinese music, like Chinese painting, is largely representational, its character indicated in its titles, although these may sometimes be drawn from opera or from poems.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, held a position of importance from the time of the Sui dynasty (581-617 C.E.), and is sited at the end of the Grand Canal, with linked waterways that provided communication between the provinces of China. It was the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1276), visited by Marco Polo in the following Mongol Yuan dynasty. He compared Hangzhou to Venice, praised its traditional arts and crafts, and commented on its great importance in the spice trade and on the beauty of the West Lake with its bordering pavilions and temples. Historical monuments abound, with temples and pagodas, and buildings that recall ancient China. The Music The music chosen for this tour of Hangzhou is played on traditional Chinese instruments. Unusually there is a Bach Minuet, transcribed for the Chinese dulcimer, the yangqin, used to accompany a visit to a silk museum. Other instruments heard include the dizi, the Chinese bamboo transverse flute, and ensembles of wind and strings, known as 'silk and bamboo' from their silk strings and bamboo pipes. Traditional Chinese music, like Chinese painting, is generally associated with a scene or poem, as revealed in its evocative titles.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places The city of Shanghai, China's most important port, owes some of its prosperity to the so-called unequal treatises forced on China during the 19th century. The place had its origin as a settlement during the Tang dynasty (618-906 C.E.), but the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong to the British and made possible the development of foreign trade through the five 'treaty ports', of which Shanghai became the most important. The growth of Shanghai into an international trading centre and the concessions made to various foreign countries explain the interesting mixture of architectural styles, continued today with the high-rise buildings of recent years. The Music The music chosen for this tour of Shanghai is played on traditional Chinese instruments. Performing the music are the wind and string ensembles known as 'silk and bamboo', from their silk strings and bamboo pipes, and ensembles that also include percussion. Instruments given prominence include the dizi, heard first in Moonlight Autumn Night by the Lake, a transverse bamboo flute, and the yangqin, a Chinese dulcimer whose strings are struck with two bamboo sticks. Traditional Chinese music, like Chinese painting, is largely representational, its character indicated in its titles, although these may sometimes be drawn from opera or from poems.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places This Naxos China Travelogue tour of Shanxi starts with the ancient walled city of Pingyao, once a thriving commercial center. The former wealth of the province is witnessed by the Courtyard Houses of the Qu and Wang families, extensive compounds dating principally from the 18th century. Shuanglin Temple, part of the Pingyao world heritage site, is seen, with its collection of 2,000 painted statues from the Song and Yuan dynasties. There are views of Mount Wutai, the first of the Four Sacred Mountains for Chinese Buddhism, with some of its many monasteries and temples, and other Buddhist monuments at the Chongsan Monastery and Jinci Temple. The most remarkable of all is the Hanging Monastery at the foot of Mount Heng, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism, apparently hanging on a sheer cliff-face. The Yingxian Wooden Pagoda of Fogong Temple, dating from the 11th century, is the oldest and highest in China. Still earlier are the carvings of the Yungang Grottoes, some 51,000 statues of the Buddha in 252 caverns, dating originally from the 5th and 6th centuries. The tour ends with the sight of the remarkable Hukuo Waterfall, with its 50-metre descent in a gorge on the Yellow River. The Music The journey is accompanied by traditional Chinese instruments and music.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places This Naxos China Travelogue tour of Sichuan (Szechwan) takes us to a land of lakes and snow-capped mountains, with a fertile central plain. The tour starts in Chengdu in a park, where there is a replica of the thatched cottage in which the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu (Tu Fu) took refuge for years. Temples in the province include the elaborate Wuhou Memorial Temple, the temples on Qingcheng Mountain and the legendary Fulong Temple. Most impressive of all, however, must be the natural scenery the rivers, lakes and waterfalls, and the mountains that protected the province from invasion for so many centuries. The Music The tour is accompanied by music played on traditional instruments.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places The capital of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an, its name translating as 'Western Peace', was the Chinese capital during the Tang dynasty (618-906 C.E.). The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, completed in 704 on the orders of the Empress Wu Zetain during her period of rule as Empress of the Zhou dynasty, soon replaced by the restored Tang, is one of the oldest such structures in China. Of particular interest is the tomb of the Emperor Huang, regarded as the founder of the unified Chinese nation, and the remarkable terracotta warriors and horses discovered around the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang Di, founder of the Qin dynasty who died in 210 B.C.E.. The tour ends with views of the precipitous Huashan (Flower Mountain), so called from its five peaks, grouped in the shape of a great flower. The Music The music chosen for this tour of Xi'an is played on traditional Chinese instruments. The excerpts include, to accompany the terracotta warriors, a contemporary composition inspired by Zhang Ji's poem Night at the Maple Bridge giving particular prominence to the zhongruan, a form of Chinese lute of ancient origin. Other instruments heard are the Chinese transverse bamboo flute, the dizi, the Chinese plucked zither, the guqin, and the Chinese lute, the pipa. A glimpse of operatic stage performance finds a place for a Shaanxi opera tune, an example of the music to be heard in the many regional forms of Chinese opera.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places This Naxos China Travelogues tour of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) starts in the old town of Kashgar, with its Uighur shops and alleys. Travelling to Tianchi (Heavenly Lake) in the Tianshan Mountain range, we see Kazakh yurts and flocks of sheep, and something of the varied flora and fauna of the area. In Kashgar again, the tomb of Abakh Khoja, a famous local ruler in the early Qing dynasty, makes a contrast with the busy city life of the capital, Urumqi. Some 30 kilometres take us to the geographical centre of the continent of Asia, while back at the heart of Kashgar itself is the 15th century yellow-tiled Id Kah Mosque. There are views of strange rock formations in the countryside and the colourful Lake Sayram, with the alpine scenery of Kanas Lake and the fertile vineyards of Grape Valley. The tour of this varied region, with its Uighur, Mongolian, Kazakh, Tatar, Uzbek, Han and other ethnic groups, ends with the snow-capped Tianshan Mountain, with its great glaciers. The Music The tour is accompanied by traditional music and instruments.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places A region of mountains and lakes, the province of Yunnan lies to the south of Sichuan. This Naxos China Travelogue tour starts with the Old Town of Lijiang, with its narrow cobbled streets and closely packed traditional buildings. Later the tour moves to Shuhe, otherwise known as Longquan Village, which is a few kilometers north of Lijiang but boasts comparable traditional buildings as a place where the minority Naxi People have long lived. Mountains in Yunnan include Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, its name that of a legendary defender of the region, transformed with his brother into thirteen peaks. The tour visits the historic capital of Yunnan, Kunming, now home to some five million inhabitants. The Music Scenes of Yunnan are matched with traditional music.

DVD. Globe Trekker. 60 Minutes. As the departure point for millions of Chinese exiles, Guangdong or Canton, was the origin of most of the Chinese food the world knows. Of the 8 major cuisines of China, including Sichuan, Hunanese and Pekinese, it was the Cantonese who first took their food to the world. On this culinary voyage of discovery, celebrated New Zealand chef, Peter Gordon, discovers the roots of this - one of the world's great cuisines. In search of the roots of Cantonese cuisine, Peter's journey takes him north to the mountain home of the Yao tribe and county of Lianzhou where a small community of this ethnic minority has settled. He meets the local people and cooks succulent spiced pork over an open fire in a Yao tribal house. After picking fresh star anise from the trees, he walks the rice fields of the Pearl River Delta and brews up some rice liquor with a local farmer. In the ancient former capital of Foshan, Peter explores the health benefits with one of the country's leading traditional Chinese medical doctors and samples some exquisitely healthy dishes. Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong, a bright and dynamic metropolis. Here Peter joins international dragon boat racing crews for a strength-giving feast. He also learns how to make delicious Dim Sum breakfast dumplings with one of the world's leading experts, Chen Xiao Hong. Next, Peter embarks on a shopping trip to the fabled market of Qingping which specializes in dried food for Chinese medicine. He discovers the Cantonese penchant for weird and wonderful ingredients. Chaozhou is a city famed for its elegant and sophisticated cuisine - here Peter meets one of its finest chefs to create a beautiful and artistic lobster dish. Cantonese street food is also irresistible and this city has some of the best - Peter can't resist hitting the streets to sample fresh fried noodles, rice congee, eel, and crab. Across the border in Fujian, Peter visits the tea mountains around An'xi and experiences the organized chaos of the Tea Capital Market where a kilo of the best can cost 1,000s of dollars. He stops over in the glittering city of Xiamen, the cradle of Cantonese fusion cooking and renowned for some of the most delicate and expensive dishes in China. Finally, Peter steps back in time in search of some simple soul food with the fishermen of Daya Bay. His journey ends with a traditional local wedding feast of delicious fresh grouper steamed with ginger, scallions and yellow beans.

DVD. The World Atlas. 50 Minutes. The Atlas steps into the digital age. A new one-of-a-kind World Atlas covering all parts of the globe with animated maps from Rand McNally and in-depth cultural and historical information. Each episode is dedicated to different countries, containing four distinct features - physical geography, political geography, popular locations, and thematic maps. The new digitally animated one-of-a-kind version of an Atlas of the World like you have never seen before!

DVD. The World Atlas. 49 Minutes. The Atlas steps into the digital age. A new one-of-a-kind World Atlas covering all parts of the globe with animated maps from Rand McNally and in-depth cultural and historical information. Each episode is dedicated to different countries, containing four distinct features - physical geography, political geography, popular locations, and thematic maps. The new digitally animated one-of-a-kind version of an Atlas of the World like you have never seen before!

DVD. Travelogue. 30 Minutes. Heading south to one of China’s richest and most booming city’s Shenzhen. Overseeing what the city has to offer and then heading to OCT east for some theme park madness. Finally, catch a show at China Folk Culture Village. Travelogue takes you on a 30-minute journey to a dynamic, exciting country with over 5000 years of history. Explore China from east to west, but catch a glimpse of other countries as well. Our travelers/hosts´ energetic, fun-loving, (and sometimes crazy), pack their intimate knowledge of China into their odyssey. Remember to join us for an insider’s look at the real China you’ve only heard about in your history textbook.