Out of Africa: The swifts of Beijing

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2015

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Amazing research now suggests that Beijing's swifts, the tiny creatures most residents pass by without noticing, are some of the most well-travelled birds on the planet, averaging an astonishing 124,000 miles of flight in their life, barely landing for years on end, and migrating as far as the southern tip of Africa. This week on Sinica, Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn spoke with Terry Townshend, founder of the environmental education and travel organization EcoAction China and creator of the "Birding Beijing" website, for an inside look at how the scientific community discovered these amazing facts. We also discuss how the changing urban landscape of Beijing is affecting the natural environment for these amazing creatures. Recommendations: Birding Beijing http://birdingbeijing.com/ Action for Swifts http://actionforswifts.blogspot.com British Trust for Ornithology http://www.bto.org Purity: A Novel, by Jonathan Franzen http://www.amazon.com/Purity-A-Novel-Jonathan-Franzen/dp/0374239215 Cement and Pig Consumption Reveal China's Huge Changes http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33802777 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China coming to you from the pop-up Chinese studio here in Beijing.
0:16.0	I'm Kaiser Gward, delighted to have back in the studio none other than Cyneneca co-founder and real-life action hero Jeremy
0:22.6	Goldcorn, the man behind
0:24.7	Danway.com. How are you, Jeremy?
0:26.8	I'm doing very well. It's very nice to be back in bed,
0:28.6	day. Oh, good, good, good. I'm really excited
0:30.7	about our live show tomorrow night, too. That'll be good.
0:33.2	So, um, I have a question
0:34.6	for you. Yes. What do you, sir, Jeremy Goldcorn, sir?
0:39.4	Apis Apis Picanincus, or the Peking Swift,
0:42.9	and certain avaricious Chinese gold and diamond miners all have in common.
0:48.5	A riddle.
0:50.3	The third one is a bit confusing.
0:53.7	What do we have in common?
0:54.7	You've all migrated to and or from Beijing to southern Africa.
0:58.4	Ah, I see, yes, indeed. Ornithologists have discovered, actually, the swifts of Beijing, the yen or the low yen.
1:06.5	They actually leave Beijing, as we all know, in late July each year, and they fly, as it turns out without actually ever landing.
1:12.7	They fly west across Central Asia and then across Southwest Asia and Saudi Peninsula and even end.
1:20.4	And they go through the Rift Valley of Africa and all the way to South Africa and Namibia, something like 16,000 miles.
1:27.3	Like, what's so? That's like 26,000ia, something like 16,000 miles, like, what's so?
1:27.7	That's like 26,000 kilometers, earning them, I guess, platinum mileage cards and first class, you know, first, first, first, first, first class seating upgrades every time.
1:38.9	So today, we're actually, we're joined by Terry Townsend, who's director of Eco Action, a new Chinese organization dedicated
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kaiser Kuo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kaiser Kuo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.