Discovery Atlas: China Revealed

Director: Cassian Harrison
Actor: James Spader
Studio: Discovery Channel
Category: DVD

List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $8.95
You Save: $6.03 (40%)

New (10) Used (2) from $7.75

Rating: 6 reviews
Sales Rank: 43971

Format: Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6

MPN: DIS3866DVD
UPC: 014381386622
EAN: 0014381386622
ASIN: B000JRYOME

Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: December 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Five Star Seller!!! New, factory sealed US Region 1 DVD. Item is 100% guaranteed not to be a bootleg or import. Item is shipped directly from our warehouse. Easy exchange if item defective or damaged in shipped.

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Customer Reviews

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Poor HiDef Imagery of Gorgeous Locations    January 8, 2009
D. Klein (Los Angeles, CA)
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.


An Entertaining Documentary, But Don't Be Mislead.    August 6, 2008
Alyse Marie (Shanghai, China)
I couldn't tell you how excited I was to buy this DVD. I pre-ordered it for myself two months in advance off of TvBoxset. It came just in time for my mother to buy it from me and rewrap it as a Christmas gift.

At first I was amazed, the documentary really gets you excited about the region. The colorful stories of the different Chinese citizens kept me on the edge of my seat. There were the farmers in southern china, who have grown rice for centuries on the edge of mountains (known as ti tian). There was a poor window washer who migrated to Shanghai to earn 10 times more money in the city, than in his hometown in the country. An Olympic hopeful, a young gymnast shows us her home away from home where in her early teens (I think she was 11 or 12), she was preparing with 8 hour a day - 6 day a week practices. You meet a millionaire entrepreneur who has been building Shanghai into an international city, from skyscrapers to fine dining. Then you head north where Buddhist monks and young men mastering the art of wushu (Chinese martial arts) live together, isolated from the rest of China.

All these things capture the imagination and you become fully aware of the impact China is beginning to make on the world. As well as the many things we can learn from one of the oldest surviving cultures in history. The movie left me wanting more, which is where it left me, and the reason why I knocked off a star.

Some tags that I have seen in reference to this DVD on TvBoxset such as communism, exploitation, oppression, government, and Mao (referring to Mao Zedong) are a little misleading. This documentary touches upon the issue of a new China, with new dreams, and its fast pace to becoming apart of the developed world. It briefly, if at all, touches of the tags above. If you are looking for a politically motivated documentary with sustainable information on Chinas politics, international affairs, history, and even economy, you will not find it here. This is a piece focusing on certain people and the lives they lead as they ride the fast wave that is China's development in the present and near future.

I enjoyed it greatly, and I believe it was worth the money. I myself enjoy personal stories and plights, but if you are looking for more facts and information on China, this may not be the documentary for you.


Life Behind the Great Wall    July 27, 2008
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
"China Revealed" follows several individual Chinese as the oldest continuous civilization on earth transitions into a leadership position. Its 1.3 billion people are expected to become the next superpower, and the world's largest economy within twenty years. All despite being comprised by over 50 different peoples and 7 major languages, fortunately united by the common ability to read and write Chinese.

Viewers begin by seeing incredibly terraced 8 century-old rice fields in a mountainous region, and learn that less than 10% of China is arable (large desert and mountain areas). The "good news" is that peasant income has increased 1,500% since they were given control of their lands in 1978.

Urban residents, however, have fared even better. Shanghai is 8X the size of NYC, with 20 million inhabitants, vs. NYC's 8 million. One new immigrant from the rural areas is followed as he works long hours cleaning skyscraper windows and saves his money for his family back home.

"China Revealed" also follows a 12-year-old girl selected for training in gymnastics beginning at age two, a young female computer worker who undertakes cosmetic surgery to improve her chances of promotion, Inner Mongolians following traditional ways while worrying about change, and a rural female police chief who has risen above traditional Chinese sexism.

Overall, "China Revealed" is an impressive depiction of an impressive people moving forward.


"This is the story of the greatest transformation on earth; and of the people living at its heart"    February 18, 2007
Shaun King.com
16 out of 23 found this review helpful

The title of my review is one of the first lines of this film and it sets the tone for an exploration of contrasts and growths within a nation incomparable in the world. The "Discovery Atlas" series are celebrations of nations and cultures. As a celebration, the series is more hopeful than critical. The (brief) stories of each nation are interwoven with the individual people the documentary crew follows. Another documentary was produced recently by Discovery Times called China Rises - The Oldest Civilization on Earth, Reborn (4 Episodes on 2 DVDs), it is available on DVD now and is almost twice as long, but the production value is much lower (an example would be the difference in soundtracks: This Atlas edition of China has a soaring, busy, and at times, ancient, musical score while the "China Rises" documentary pales in comparison).

What follows in this review are statistics and quotations taken directly from the film (I wrote them down while watching and pausing the video).....

It is now predicted that the Chinese economy will be the largest in the world in little more than 20 years. China has 1/5 of the world's population and now consumes almost 1/3 of the world's steel and almost 1/2 of its concrete. In any single minute the Chinese nation now burns almost 2,500 thousands pounds of coal, 24,000,000 watts of electricity and 200,010 gallons of crude oil. It has been estimated that in 30 years we will need another planet earth to satisfy China's ever growing appetite for raw materials. But for all this explosion of industry, China still rests on traditions that are thousands of years old, like the patty fields on terraces in Long Shen. One terrace worker said, "We get up at 6...we don't come back home until 8 or 8:30." These terraces are known as the "Dragon's Back." For all of its vast area, less than 10% of China can be farmed. One worker remembers the terrible famine of 1959. Until 1978, the Communist Party directly controlled all of China's land, but then the announced an extraordinary change in policy: hand the land over to the peasants to run themselves. The average peasant income rocketed by more than 15,000 %.
The Communist Party has announced to businesses in the city, "To get rich is glorious." 10s of millions have abandoned farming life for city dwelling. Already 8-times the size of New York City, Shanghi is expanding every day: investors are pouring more than 10,000,000 dollars a year into the city.
China covers over 3 million miles of land and there are over 50 different peoples. The people of Inner Mongolia still hold on to their traditions. China is a nation so diverse, its people speak 7 different languages and over 80 dialects. There is just one bond between them all: the Chinese calligraphy. Kung Fu (Wushu) is a Chinese contribution to the Martial Arts.
The most populace nation on earth, China has 1.3 billion people nearly double the population of all of Europe and America combined. Every minute another 34 Chinese children are born, every year the population grows another 7 years. In 1979 they instituted a one-child-policy; this policy has recently been relaxed but nothing without an entire generation of only-child families.
In one of Beijing's largest restaurants, 100 chefs cook the evening meal.
In 1966, Mao stood on the balcony of the Forbidden City and declared the Cultural Revolution. Beijing's bow makers were a target of Mao's desire to destroy many of the traditions of China. After 2 decades, the bow makers are back at their craft.
The Great Wall of China is a testament to the power of old China. 600 years ago the Ming Dynasty decided to close off the northern boarder of China: 4,000 miles. A million laborers were put to work; they build a wall wide enough for 5 horses to ride alongside each other on the wall. With 1,000 garrison towers over 100,000 troops. Now, China is building again with similar ambitions. There are more construction projects going on in China then in anywhere else in the world. There is a new middle class in China. 12 million new faces join China's job market every year. Drugs are problem for modern China, heroine especially. There are over 750,000 Chinese on enforced government detox programs. Overall, it is estimated that there are between 7 and 10 million addicts: a 10 fold increase in just 5 years. One taxi driver is shown on the documentary to be in possession of drugs, he was smuggling them across a boarder; he later faced the death penalty for drug smuggling.


Excellent for anyone interested in China.    January 28, 2007
Emily Smith (Florida, USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

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.