We Accidentally Found out Why There Are No Birds in China

We ride through China's northernmost province and discover a massive lie.

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Location -
Daqing, Heilongjiang, China

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10,000 km. on motorcycles across China's unexplored northern provinces. The Russian border, Inner Mongolia, and even North Korea!

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Living in China for so long, we would like to share some of the comparisons that we have found between China and the west, and shed some light on the situation.

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Winston and I ride 5000 km across 5 Chinese provinces and discover crazy food, people and customs!

Music -Cartoon Feat. Jüri Pootsman - I remember u

Grain/concrete articles -

[JohnJaneson]

The birds are in reeducation camps, learning life skills, basic mandarin, and party doctrines.

[JamieGFletcher]

I grew up in Hong Kong back in the 1970's and did my several trips into China, the first being in 1979 just after the boarder was first opened. I can tell you there were no birds even back then, in fact there were no animals of any kind. Reason being they ate everything they could to survive, pollution hasn't caused this, it was starvation that did it. I did some trips to the food markets at night and animals you would normally see in the wild were there, captured in cages, ready to be eaten. Eagles, monkeys, cats, dogs, snakes, no animal was safe. I think the animal populations never recovered, and now they have the pollution to deal with as well.

[michaelwilson]

I live in a densely populated area in the US in a city and I’m so happy to see and hear birds and squirrels. Watching them interact is so fascinating and pleasing to me.

[Ghostdog]

I was in Shanghai in the late 70s through mid 80s. University of Shanghai on a science project. I mentioned the lack of Pigeons, Sparrows, Crows, birds you normally see in any Urban City. I did see a few songbirds that were kept as pets in cages. I was told (in private) that they were all eaten during the revolution. I would guess the air pollution took out any that were left

[katiesanders]

I lived in China 2 years in 2006, when I asked my host family why there was no wildlife as we were traveling through the country I was no told it was because "if it had wings and wasn't an airplane or had legs and wasn't a table, they ate it." I wonder if that's still something they'd admit to now.

[ceewood]

That's just FREAKY!! I've been to Thailand, India and several American states and cannot Imagine not seeing birds and deer everywhere. I currently live in a suburb 25 miles west of Cleveland, , Ohio and it's a town that feels like it was carved out of the wilderness. Just this year, I have seen 2 different kinds of vultures--walking down the sidewalk like People, gray pigeons, groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels, skunks and chipmunks--and I do battle with all of them every Spring [except for the vultures, of course!] The idea that China's youth may never have see the robins, cardinals and blue jays, etc., in person, that we see every year is INSANE...and this being northern Ohio, we get seagulls and Canadian Geese as well.

[joemartoroy]

A flying bird is a symbol of freedom. The lack of flying birds symbolizes the absence of it.

[SchlyterMia]

In Sweden we have a long running program for reintroduction of storks. They are also kept fenced in while growing up in the hopes that they will return there as adults. We still haven't been successful despite the program running for like thirty years, but once every odd year I spot one in the wild. It's a beautiful sight!
Migratory wetland birds can be very difficult to reintroduce.

[fruitcocktailsamurai]

During my time in China (Wuxi 2018-2021; Xiamen 2021-2022). I remember seeing many fish, frogs, and birds in alley markets; all of them were tightly packed in tanks, fishnets, or cages. It was very disheartening. The only other animals I ever saw outside the markets were pets or the occasional abandoned/stray cats and dogs, of which I took in over a dozen kittens and puppies over the years and found homes for them.

[sussell]

My son lived in Qingdao near the beach for a year in 2007. There were no birds anywhere and he had been told that they had all been eaten!

[ByronAgain]

I was always taken by how few birds I saw in Shanghai. A city that should be awash in sparrows, wild pigeons, and a huge range of birds, but they were fairly rare.

[skyangel]

This makes me sad for the birds but I can't imagine not seeing birds or hearing them...I hear them every morning when I wake up!

[dzhellek]

My back yard is a warzone between an army of squirrels and squadrons of birds defending their nests. In China I could probably sell tickets.

[AsbestosMuffins]

between the rampant hunting, the environmental destruction, and pollution I'm shocked there's any wildlife to begin with. birds are very sensative to these problems

[OssaGhalyoun]

A certain fresh water dolphin native to a large Chinese river, known to be in that river since time immemorial, has become extinct only in the last few decades, due to pollution and other factors such as ships navigating the river and other things.

[williamholmes]

I'm in Liverpool in Britain. The range of wildlife in what is a bustling port city is amazing. Not just the large numbers of birds but also ground animals that have moved in to the parks and green areas. It saddened me when I watched ADV China a few years ago and saw how the wildlife in China had all but disappeared from the countryside. Keep up the good work guys 👏👏👏

[sarahmckenzie]

While living in Beijing in 2013-14 I rarely saw birds of any kind except some ducks on a pond. Their absence made the city even grayer than it already was.

[ellem]

When I was at university in the 80s we had a lake on campus and a flock of ducks. Our security teams were forever chasing off the Chinese students who were attempting to catch a duck to cook it. This happened constantly throughout my three years at university.

[johnktanjt]

Now that you guys mentioned this I can't remember seeing birds when I visited China during my various trips there for work (pre wuhan pandemic, not planning to return there). Not only birds, there are very few fishes in Yangtze River, the three gorges dam has effectively destroyed the habitats of many species of fish and creatures. Not only that, the stagnation of water promotes algae growth and pumps out 10 times more methane (green house gas that is much worst than carbon dioxide) than normal river. Thanks for this interesting video, and the message.

[rosewood]

As an Australian who lives in the country I am literally surrounded by wildlife. I walk outside and I can hear birds. It's noisy. But many countries in comparison are silent. France China etc very sad and very bad for the eco systems. Birds eat insects bugs all sorts of things. I have happy birds.