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Five young Chinese directors have started a 20,000-kilometer journey along the border of China to capture the unique landscape, culture and history of the regions.

The five - Liu Chang, Xu Jun, Shi Qiurong, Jiang Ying and Hu Tingting - are award winners of Discovery First Time Filmmakers Initiative, a competition initiated by Discovery Networks Asia, the Asian division of Discovery Communications, to find young talents among China's directors.

The team will explore everything from the snowy mountains, vast deserts, blue seas, expansive prairies, diversified wildlife, mysterious and ancient geographical formations, and the culture and history of this extensive area.

Each director will produce a documentary each, and the series will premiere as five 30-minute films on the Discovery Travel and Travel Satellite TV in early November.

Seeing the forest through trees

In order to promote the idea that the "forest is the lifeline of human beings", the large-scale public China Forest Line campaign was launched on Sunday in Beijing and will last until 2013. Part of the campaign strategy calls for the creation of a team of scientists and journalists who would form the "China Forest Line Scientific Investigation Team". This group would travel throughout the country, conducting scientific investigations and interviews about China's forests.

The campaign would also culminate with the production of a 100-episode documentary series entitled China Forest Line, a photo album of images collected for the campaign and a children's TV program.

Got a TV script idea?

Beijing Television Station is asking the public to come up with ideas for TV shows. The winner will be rewarded 20,000 yuan ($26,600) and offered a work contract with BTV.

The four-month project named I BTV SHOW aims to unearth production talent from the general public. BTV hopes that through this project they can generate a mechanism to produce various popular TV programs to meet different tastes.

Participants can hand in theirs scripts from September 1 to September 30. In October, 50 candidates will plan for their ideas, and 20 of them will be selected for the second round in November. The committee will select the final winner from eight remaining candidates in December.

Famous TV presenter Yang Lan (pictured right) joined the promotion ceremony on Sunday.

China Daily

(China Daily 09/05/2007 page18)