Discovery Atlas: China Revealed [Blu-ray]

Excellent documentary. Even though it is a few years old (made when China hosted the Olympics), I still use it in my classroom as a cultural viewpoint of China and what the future holds for the world and China due to this fascinating culture and country. Everyone who watches it, even though it is quite long, comments positively on it. I have shown it in middle school and college with positive results in both. Very well made and put together--it holds your attention well. It highlights several different people in varying areas of China and the struggles they have faced, are facing, and anticipate facing in the future. It follows a young child trying to achieve a place in the Olympics and discusses the changing roles of family and the one-child policy--how it affects those singular children. It also follows several women trying to make adjustments to attitudes about women entering the workforce in China, trying to compete against a Westernized thinking world, and how traditional roles of women/men are being challenged and altered. It compares/contrasts the struggle young people are faced with in so far as remaining true to past traditions, yet seeking out the more modern roles that are so adamant within the world today. This movie spans all areas of China--doesn't just focus on one area, and spans several different topics as they relate to the culture of the China, as well as their role within the span of the world. It does a good job of comparing and contrasting China's culture with that of the Western cultures and discusses traditions, future problems that China is going to have to deal with (as well as the rest of the world), and the young vs. the old in so far as thought processes politically, within the business realm, professionally, traditionally, and culturally, as well as family roles/responsibilities, changing perspectives about men/women's roles within Chinese culture (jobs, family, societal, etc.), touches on a bit of the history of China and how that is presently affecting some of the choices the Chinese are faced with and making, the industrial side of China, farming, arts, writing/language, etc. Very well-rounded documentary that is filled with a lot of good information. I hope Discovery can make another more modern version of this film in the future--it was well put together, but what it contains, is still very viable in any classroom that might be dealing with China, change, world relations, changing working roles, the future of the world in general (in a business and economic sense), cultural family roles, traditions, etc. Even though it is a bit outdated, most of the information in it still applies today. I would be interested in seeing another documentary of this nature by Discovery on China and/or India in the future.

A beautiful documentary and one that I had to have on DVD after I saw it on the Discovery Channel.It gives you a little background, but in the majority of the 100 minutes you follow several people such as a young gymanst, a window washer in Shanghai hoping to find fortune, a family who still works in the rice fields, a young martial artist, a policewoman in the Gansu province, and several others.You are able to follow them and understand their way of life in this fascinating country. It is interesting and yet almost sad at how technology and the future is hurting some of the ancient traditions and ways of life in China.My only complaint is that in the middle of the documentary, it gets a little slow, and I would have preferred to hear more about the actual country, but it's still a fabulous documentary.The narration is great, music is beautiful, the design and feel of the documentary is fantastic. All in all, I loved it and enjoy watching it very much.

Most other reviews are for the standard-definition DVD version. And for regular DVD, "China Revealed" probably looks great. BUT NOT ON BLU-RAY. For a Blu-ray disc, this "hi-definition" tour of China has some of the worst video quality I've seen for a released BD. It may have been okay for their "broadcast" where signals get highly compressed any way, but an actual Blu-ray disc can allow for a much better signal. The blockiness and poor video compression of this BD often makes people's faces look like they were built out of legos and the details of the supposedly amazing vistas look like they've been smudged, crushed or created with construction paper cut-outs. I was so looking forward to a beautiful tour of China; and although the subject matter is often amazing, it is only a mild exaggeration to say that you can download better picture quality off of YouTube. Many PlayStation Network downloads do look better. It was disappointing to see the marvelous colors of such a rich country so poorly compressed. See the documentary, learn its lessons about China, but don't waste your money on the Blu-ray version. Buy it in standard-def (which probably was the original source). A travelogue or Blu-ray title that should be LIVING on its video quality should LOOK much, much better than this. And I would expect better from a name like "Discovery HD". These images are blotchy, blocky and jagged.

All the Discovery Atlas videos are great classroom resources for Current Events or World Affairs teachers, but Discovery Atlas China is one of the best of the series. I prefer the longer versions of the videos over the condensed ones included on the compilation. Due to the Discovery Atlas format of shared individual stories, my students are able to make a "personal" connection with the subjects they can't get from regular travel videos. The high-definition production and videography also adds to the "wow" factor of these videos as well.

this should probably get 2 stars, but i gave it only 1 in order to warn people that there is almost no scenery in this film, and very few of the breath-taking locations china has. it's almost all people eating, talking, and doing gymnastics. not what i was looking for.