China on Four Wheels

Episode 1

Anita Rani and Justin Rowlatt embark on two epic car journeys across China, navigating congested cities and winding mountain roads, to explore how the country's economic growth, symbolised by its booming car industry, is affecting people's lives.

In the first programme, Anita takes the high road through the rich, industrialised cities of the east, driving a Great Wall Haval, the best-selling 4X4 in China. This is the land of billionaires with fleets of super cars, of imitation French chateaux and of high-tech solar hotels. She cruises Beijing with the moneyed young members of the China Supercar club and joins a convoy of 'self-drive' holiday makers on a trip to sacred Mount Tai.

Meanwhile, Justin drives a 'bread van', the loaf-shaped workhorse of the countryside, through China's poor rural hinterland, and discovers that here donkeys are often more common than cars. He visits the 'ghost city' of Ordos and puts his bread van through its paces on China's second-biggest racing track. He joins the Red Tourism trail in Yan'an, the cradle of Mao's communist revolution, and finds himself in the firing line during a dramatic civil war battle re-enactment.

On the first leg of their journey, Anita and Justin discover a country that has developed rapidly, raising millions out of poverty. Yet it faces important challenges that may affect us all: a potential property bubble, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and growing inequality.

Episode 2

Anita Rani and Justin Rowlatt continue their epic car journeys across China, heading for their final destination, the financial mega-city of Shanghai. Along the way, they navigate congested cities and winding mountain roads to explore how the country's economic growth, symbolised by its booming car industry, is affecting people's lives.

On her route through the industrialised east, Anita visits some of the country's most sophisticated and luxurious cities. In Qingdao, she discovers a little piece of the Loire Valley: a Chinese wine chateau with an accompanying vineyard. In Hangzhou, she joins a couple on their wedding day, complete with a luxury car fleet, and finds out how weddings have changed since the couple's grandparents were married in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, Justin continues his epic journey through the poor, remote Chinese countryside in his loaf-shaped bread van. He bumps rather precariously up the potholed Aizhai Highway, one of China's most dangerous roads, and visits the brand new engineering marvel of the Aizhai Bridge. He explores the life of farmers from the Miao ethnic minority deep in the Hunan countryside, and tries to get to the bottom of Mao Zedong's legacy in contemporary China.

On the final leg of their journey across China, Anita and Justin discover a country that has developed rapidly, raising millions out of poverty, but which faces important challenges: a lack of healthcare and support for the vulnerable, pollution, and growing inequality.

High quality BBC iPlayer rip with subtitles in English.