Full coverage: ‘看中國’外國青年影像計劃專題

Editor's forward: "Looking China" International Youth Film Project is co-organized by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), Beijing Normal University and Huilin Foundation. The program focuses on the young participants’ personal experiences of Chinese culture and encourages them to discover and tell Chinese stories from their own perspectives.

As of the year 2018, students from 35 countries were invited to participate in the "Looking China" project. They were stationed in 11 municipalities, provinces and autonomous region here in China. Every filmmaker has worked out a 10-minute short film about Chinese culture around the topic of "Ecology, Biology, Lifeology."

The bharal, also called the Himalayan blue sheep or naur, is a caprid spotted in the western part of China, the high Himalayas of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan.

The bharal is categorized as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). In China, it is included in the list of wildlife under special state protection. The main factor affecting its population growth was widespread killing. From 1958 to 1989, 100,000 to 200,000 kilograms of blue sheep mutton were exported from Qinghai, a province located in northwest of China, to Germany and other places every year. About 5,000 to 10,000 sheep were killed annually.

Blue sheep are often spotted in Helan Mountain in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. Due to recent policies such as the closure of mountain grazing and the conversion of farmland to forests, the ecological system in the area has gradually recovered, and the number of blue sheep has been steadily rising. At present, there are 14 to 17 sheep per square kilometer, and the total amount has increased from more than 10,000 before the closure of mountain grazing to more than 20,000 now.

The movie "Blue Sheep" directed by Zachary Flint takes you to see the blue sheep and their “lovers” in west China. For some people, taking care of animals is not just a hobby, but a mission in life.

(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com. )

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