Lost Treasures of the Yangtze Valley

The first and last encompassing view of the Three Gorges area before it is changed irrevocably, flooded by the building of the Three Gorges Dam in the heart of China. No area of China represents more emotional or historical importance to its people for it was in these gorges and mountains that Chinese life began. The Yangtze River is China's longest river, and the third largest in the world after Nile and Amazon. More commonly known among the Chinese as the Chang Jiang, or the 'long river', the Yangtze is the lifeblood of northern China but also a large, muddy, unpredictable killer. As China constructs the world's largest and most powerful dam on the Yangtze River, scholars and scientists race to uncover and preserve artifacts that tell its story and the story of the people who have lived on its shores for over 50,000 years. This documentary is about the valley's past. Offering glimpses of some of the monuments and archaeological sites that will be drowned when the dam is completed, it focuses on the race to discover more about the Baa civilisation before its ancient homeland is destroyed.