Shooting of programme with Tass participation on tropical China over.

22/11 Tass 76

Xishuangbanna (Yunnan province, Southwest China), November 22
(Itar-Tass) - The shooting of a TV programme on Xishuangbanna, a
picturesque tropical area in the southwestern province of Yunnan, has been
completed in China with Itar-Tass participation.

This project was translated into life at the initiative of the Russian
service of International Radio China.
The programme aims at showing Russian viewers this unique area on the
border with Laos and Myanmar, known for its rich flora and fauna as well
as breath-taking beautiful sights of nature, not affected by civilization.
It will tell Russian audiences about wild Asian elephants, thickets of
tropical forests covering mountains as well as unique culture of local
ethnic groups.
The shooting team included a Tass correspondent, acting as one of
documentary stars. The story of Xishuangbanna is described by the Russian
journalist, as it were, who lived in China for long and, at long last,
realised his dream - visited those unique places, known according to the
scientific-popular film "Tropoy dzhungley" ("By the Jungle Path") which
was shot by famous Soviet director Alexander Zguridi jointly with the
Beijing film studio. The present programme is also devoted to the 50th
anniversary of making that film.
While collecting materials in Xishuangbanna, the shooting team visited
a preserve of wild Asian elephants, the world's largest (in its area)
botanical gardens and had contacts with local ethnic groups as well as
visited one of villages where people live according to old customs.
The Dai ethnic group whose people are close in their culture and
language to Thais, make up the main part of population in Xishuangbanna.
Villages in that area are a peculiar combination of South East Asian and
Chinese cultures.
-0-bur/kud