Filmmaker documents danger of assignments

If there is one film director who knows more about Chinese peacekeepers than anyone else, it's Shang Changyi, a military documentary director from the August First Film Studio of the People's Liberation Army.

Since 2003, when China sent its first troops to Africa, Shang has filmed seven of the nine peacekeeping missions in which Chinese peacekeepers have served, including in Lebanon, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Darfur region in Sudan.

On many occasions, such as when Shang walked through minefields in Lebanon or had guns pointed at him in Darfur, the only equipment in his hands was his camera.