D J Clark Multimedia Stories: Recent Episodes
D J Clark
This podcast is of D J Clark's weekly video story, published on the China Daily website. The features cover a variety of subjects from in depth special reports to travel and regional events.
D J Clark is a contract multimedia reporter for China Daily, Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism and Course leader on the MA International Multimedia Journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University (in collaboration with the University of Bolton, UK). He also researches and writes about visual journalism as a vehicle for social change, the subject that drives both his journalistic and academic work. DJ runs visual journalism workshops throughout the world most recently for Canon in China and the Philippines, The British Council in Croatia, Mozambique and Vietnam and World Press Photo in the Philippines and across Africa. In 2008 he gave a keynote speech at the World Press Photo Awards on the growth of Majority World Photojournalism based on a PhD he completed in 2009 at the University of Durham that focused on photojournalism as a tool for social change in the Developing World.
Starting his career in 1988 D J Clark worked first as a photojournalist before moving into video journalism and later as a multimedia journalist. Over the last 23 years he has covered stories all over the world for leading newspapers, magazines, news agencies and TV stations. In 2006 he moved permanently to China where he is now based covering news throughout Asia.
Over the past six weeks China Daily reporter D J Clark has been walking the Beijing waterways, discovering five unique day walks that have taken him to all four corners of the city. In the last of seven videos Clark talks to the author of “Beijing’s Forgotten Waterways” and shares some of his discoveries.
Since the 11th century in Beijing, dynastic emperors built moats to defend their city walls, and it is a loop of these waterways that makes up the last of the five walks in this series. Once again it is Kublai Khan and his grand architect Gou Shoujing that we have to thank for building the moats, most of which still stand today in various states of repair. In part six of Walking the Beijing Waterways, D J Clark takes off along the Yuan dynasty circuit.
In part five of Walking the Beijing Waterways, D J Clark starts near the international exhibition center where the Bahe river spills out into the northern moats and heads 12 km east out beyond the 5th ring road to where the river meets the second airport express way. Of all the walks this one takes him the furthest from the city center and in doing so he passes through urban and increasingly rural communities.
In part four of Walking the Beijing Waterways, D J Clark starts where the last walk finished, at the entrance to Yuyuantan Park under the old CCTV Tower in the far west of the city. It's the longest of the five walks at 26 km and takes a full day to complete. Divided into two sections, the first follows the Yongding River to where it meets the city moats of the Qing Dynasty and follows them in a horse shoe around to the Beijing Railway Station where it meets the Tonghui canal. The second section follows the water east towards the Grand Canal.
In part three of Walking the Beijing waterways, D J Clark takes off on a 13 km western walk that is broadly divided into two halves. The first is a pleasant stroll through the vast grounds of the Summer Palace and around the Kunming Lake. The second consists a long straight walk south along the wide Jingmi Canal which sits below the busy western edge of the city.
In part two of Walking the Beijing Waterways, D J Clark takes off on a central route that loops around a series of lakes and moats which takes him into the heart of the city and the walls of the Forbidden City.
Often the best way to explore a new city is by foot and Beijing is no exception. Although the city gets a lot of bad press for it’s high levels of pollution, it also has clear days and a lot of parks and paths to explore. In this video China Daily reporter D J Clark introduces five different one day walks using the myriad of canals, rivers and lakes to guide him away from the traffic and discover areas of the city few visitors get to experience.
Kesha is from a small village in Nepal’s western hills. She continues her traditional proffession of tailoring. She is a widely respected community leader in her district of Parbat and also advocates for rural entrepreneurs at the national level.
Chitrakali comes from the Magar community in the western hills. She
has taken her traditional skills in collecting and weaving wild
Himalayan stinging nettle, and turning the "allo" fibres into a
multitude of products. She now provides indirect employment to
hundreds of women in her district. She is a highly successful
entrepreneur and community leader.
Devaki is from the hills in Nuwarkot, north of Kathmandu. Born into
the highest Brahmin caste, her family lost all that they had during a
major flood. She now lives on a small piece of land, where she leads a
workshop and cooperative, weaving Nepal’s traditional "dhaka" cloth.
Pinki is from the Maithili community of Nepal’s eastern Terai
(plains). Her story shows the changing family dynamics especially in
conservative Hindu societies of the Terai. Her enterprise is based on
an old traditional practice of making bangles from a native tree-sap
called ‘Laha’.
Parbati Rai truly represents a modern Nepali woman living in rural eastern Nepal. Unlike your stereotypical village woman, she is very outspoken, highly independent and a local martial arts instructor.
Mina comes from a ethnic caste of Kumal, which for generations has
produced clay pots. Now with cheaper plastic products coming from
India and China, they have lost their traditional livelihood. She now
runs her own beauty parlour in remote western Terai (plains).
Durga is from a marginalised ethnic group known as Danuwars, from
the inner-Terai of eastern Nepal. She has endured a difficult life,
living with disability with limited support in her rural village. She
now runs her own enterprise making daalmot (snacks) for the district
market.
Pawa is from a small Badi community on the outskirts of Dailekh
bazaar. The Badi people are one of the most discriminated and
oppressed sub-castes in Nepali society. Considered "untouchables",
they are placed at the bottom even amongst other untouchables. Their
community has begun small-scale pig farming to improve their
livelihoods.
Kalpana is a former ‘Kamaiya’ (bonded labourer). Now, she runs her
own tailoring enterprise, providing employment and training to other
former female bonded labourers.
Nestled in the mountains of north Sichuan, the Jiuzhai valley is possibly one of China’s most picturesque landscapes. In winter the waterfalls ice up and the snow covered mountains gleam in the lakes below, truly a magical experience. In a short interview with Sichuan travel expert Brian Glorioso, China Daily discovers that escaping into the Jiuzhaigou wilderness is a little harder than you would imagine.
You Zhong Ding Da, was born in Jianpan village, one of just a handful of small Tibetan communities within the Jiuzhai Gou National park. He has grown up seeing his home valley in northern Sichuan Province change into one of the China’s most popular tourist destinations. China daily reporter D J Clark met him at the Zharu Monastery and asked him what the place meant to him.
Cecilia Chen worked for ten years in public relations until one day she decided to give up her day job, pick up a camera and notepad and take to the road. She is now one of a new breed of freelance Chinese journalists who are tapping into the growing independent travel market, wandering the world and publishing stories of their adventures. China Daily’s D J Clark caught up with her at her latest exhibition in Beijing.
Ten finalists competed in the second Jiuzhai Zhuoma beauty contest that ran for more than 50 days across Sichuan’s famous mountain region. The final ten contestants had been narrowed down from a shortlist of 100 by online voters who were asked to select their favourite competitor as the event ran throughout January.
Taking in the pristine Borneo Rain Forest is unfortunately very much an endangered experience. The promise of quick profits from cutting it down and selling the wood has outweighed the international calls for preservation. That is in most areas except the small state of Brunei. The oil rich sultanate has been busy extracting it’s natural resources from under the ground leaving the forests above untouched. D J Clark went to investigate.
More than 2.5 million people, 41 percent of Ningxia's population, are living in the region's southern mountainous area, which the United Nations listed as one of the most uninhabitable places in 1970 due to its extreme environment. The government, which brings a considerable amount of aid to the area every year, identifies more than 1 million residents as being below the poverty line.
Local people and the government, however, are looking for a sustainable way of to draw the local people out of the poverty trap.
China Daily's Peng Yinning went to investigate.
Following announcements from Beijing and Shaanxi on contingency plans for heavily polluted days, China Daily reporter D J Clark sets out to investigate what he can do to protect his family at home.
Nestled on the Hunan Guizhou border, Fenghuang is a small but beautiful city deep in the Tuo Jiang River valley. For one week in December it hosted the biannual Phoenix photography festival with 160 exhibitions showing over 300 photographers and 6,000 photographs. D J Clark went down to Hunan to investigate.
Freelance photographer and writer Cecilia Chen has visited both the north and south poles and have been surprised at the growing number of Chinese tourists she found there. In this short video Cecilia talks about her visits to the poles and why she feels they are worth the effort in getting there.
Zhang Lian was born and brought up on a small rural farm in Ningxia Hui Autonomous region. Tired of farming he left his village to start a new career writing poems, first in hand written books and then later in printed volumes. To sustain his creative lifestyle he peddles his books around the local county towns, going door to door selling his poems.
Local village imam, Yang Yinping from Sha Tupo village in Ningxia province, China, explains why halal food is important for the Hui community. Yang is expanding his animal husbandry business to accommodate a growing demand for halal food but claims that some food labelled ‘halal’ in China does not meet the standards Islam demands.
This video traces Bhushan Tuladhar a recycle enthusiast who has turned his home in the suburbs of Kathmandu into an example of how individuals can make a real difference to their environment.
The first in a new series on “Reacting to Climate Change – Stories from Asia” this video traces green architect Clifford Espinosa in his quest to cool down the 16th century Malate parish church in Manila without using air conditioning.
Angelique Songco, a dive master and director of the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, the largest marine park in the Philippines, is intensely feeling the effects of global warming and combating it with a variety of measures.
this video traces park volunteer Erik Suheri who is hoping the planting of lost of lost Mangrove forests to the north of Jakarta will help prevent a future catastrophe as sea levels rise around the city.
Over the past 25 years Rajendra Singh, known as India’s rainman, has built more than 4,500 earthen check dams to combat water shortages across northern India.
Amir Hossain was once a farmer on the banks of the Meghna river but as the banks collapsed and the water levels rose so he saw his farm and his home swallowed by river that had supported him.
Le Hoang Viet, an innovator, has invented a more efficient way to burn rice husk in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta kilns, that no longer pollutes the environment.
Mei Han is in charge of Lian Wei defences that runs along the West River in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. She is in a constant battle with an increasingly unpredictable climate. Some regions of China are facing unusual amounts of rain, which threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in the Pearl Delta.
The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Mr C Y Leung, attended a flag raising ceremony held in Golden Bauhinia Square at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), Wan Chai on October 1st, China National Day. This was followed by a reception held at the same venue and hosted by Mr Leung. In the evening the city celebrated with a fireworks display across the harbor.
Hu Wuqiang was born into a family of potters from Tongguan, Hunan province, that spans back over 1,200 years. Lately he rediscovered a Tang Dynasty process of creating red stains on large pots, fired in a dragon kiln.
Bali, also known as Island of the Gods, is a land of many opportunities for the adventurous traveler in search of a paradise getaway.
There is a saying in China that goes “Food is like Heaven.” As the balance of the population shifts from the countryside to the cities so more and more people are being denied the opportunity to control their own “heaven” but is this about to change?
With rising global populations and a lack of land to expand rural agriculture governments are starting to look at their cities as an unlikely place to site new farmland. D J Clark investigates how this is playing out in China.
Over the past 20 years horse riding as a sport in China has been on the rise, since the 2008 Olympics where China was represented by six riders in the Hong Kong arena.
China Daily reporter Peng Yining took the short drive out of central Beijing to Xiwu International Equestrian Club, out near the airport, where around 40 of the 200 members are younger than 18 years of age to find out what was driving young people to learn this ancient sport.
A global drought this year has affected some of the world’s largest food producing countries leading to lower outputs and increasing prices of cereal crops around the world. China has so far managed to keep its cereal food prices steady thanks to large reserves that draw on bumper crops over the past few years. In this video China Daily reporters D J Clark and Jia Fan visit local markets in Hebei province to find out how rising food prices would affect peoples daily lives.
As the world moves closer to December 12th 2012, the final date of a 5,125 year long ancient Mayan calendar. So China’s media has been increasing its coverage of UFO sightings around the country. Although scholars agree the date has no association with cataclysmic events occurring in 2012, rumors have claimed we are approaching the end of the world and with this, speculation of an Alien invasion. In this video D J Clark sets out to investigate whether these UFO sightings have any credibility.
Guidebooks advise against a trip to Nepal in July and August. It’s the height of the monsoon. But desperate to escape the Beijing summer heat D J Clark shunned the advice and booked a ticket to Kathmandu only to be pleasantly surprised at the possibilities of holidaying in the rain.
Feeling a little jaded, by all the athleticism of the Olympics, D J Clark visits the Temple of Heaven Park in southeast Beijing in search of some more elderly Chinese sports. In the small alleyways that wind around the ancient temple he found Sun Wenxia practicing Dahuagun beneath the western gate. Could this be a possible contender for a future Chinese made Olympic sport?
In the third video in the series, D J Clark goes to Taoranting park in the south of Beijing where he discovers a sport invented in Shanxi 20 years ago that combines tai chi with badminton. Rouliqiu can be played as a competitive sport across a net or individually as a form of therapeutic sport. It’s hard to explain in words but all is revealed in the video
In the second video in the series, D J Clark goes to Zizhu Park near Beijing's National library to find Zhang Liguo, to seek Jiang Li Guo, A Tai Chi master from Chen, the oldest of five schools of this ancient martial art in his search through the Beijing parks to find a potential future Chinese Olympic sport. Though more commonly associated with a form of slow meditative movement the sport can be competitive and Jiang believes it's promotion to an Olympic event would reap a lot of benefits.
In a small courtyard on the north side of the Jingshan Park, that overlooks the Forbidden city in Beijing, a small group of leisure entrepreneurs practice a new sport they hope will resonate with soccer fans around the world. It’s called triple J. D J Clark dons a pair of shorts and goes down to see whether this newly created game has a chance of making it as a future Olympic sport.
The 15th July is an auspicious day in Brunei. The streets and buildings of Bandar Seri Begawan are lavishly decorated in yellow, black and red with pictures of Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, at every turn. Officials dressed in traditional attire await the motorcade carrying the royal family for the grand parade around central stadium in Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin square. It’s the King’s 66th birthday and everyone in this small, wealthy country is out to celebrate.
Perched in a small corner of Borneo island, 1,500 KM directly south of Hainan province, lies the small but wealthy country of Brunei Darussalem. The 400,000 inhabitants are blessed with some of the largest oil fields in Southeast Asia making it, one of the wealthiest countries (per person) in the world.
The country is made up of two small slivers of land separated a part of eastern Malaysia. It boasts two worthwhile attractions. The capital of Bandar Seri Begawan, with its striking mosques and picturesque water villages, makes for a relaxing days exploration. The city is small and easy to get around on foot, or by using the water taxis that take you out to the stilted villages in the Sungai river. Allow a good few hours to loose yourself in the maze of boardwalk paths that weave through the water villages.
The second must see attraction is the pristine rainforest that has been left untouched, unlike much of the rest of Borneo. The stunning Ulu Temburong National Park is the easiest entry into the forest though you will have to join a tour if you want to avoid complex permits. Most tours go by boat from Bandar and last two days.
Brunei is not a country with much to offer a long term holiday but worth a visit for a short break or while travelling through Borneo.
As the temperature warms up in the capital city, China Daily multimedia reporter D J Clark went out to capture some scenes of the old and new. Starting at 4 AM as dawn broke on top of his apartment building DJ took his bike and made his way from the Olympic park, through the old city to Tiananmen square and onto the central business district, finishing in a tall building overlooking the CCTV tower and Guamao.
British born Scott Mason stopped in Nepal on a round the world travel trip to try his hand at paragliding. There he had an idea of training birds of prey to fly with the paragliders so the passengers could get a first hand view of the birds in flight. Ten years later he runs a bird rescue centre, a guest house and parahawking trips for tourists visiting the picturesque town of Pokhara in central Nepal.
Pneumonia and diarrhoea are the two leading causes of infant mortality, together accounting for nearly one third of all deaths among under fives around the world. This amounts to more than two million lives lost each year. Both diseases are easily prevented and cured, a new United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report claims.
In this video D J Clark travels to the Nepal/China border to investigate a potential natural disaster that involves both countries. Numerous glacial lakes make up the source of the Boqu river on the China side of the border. Experts from both China and Nepal claim that due to climate change nine of the lakes in the Boqu basin are growing at an alarming rate and pose an imminent threat of bursting their banks and sending a wall of up to 15 meters of water down the valley and into Nepal.
Over the last few years I estimate I have spent on average one day a week passing through airports around the world, being thrown into new acquaintances I had never intended. March 15th, 2012 is one of these days.
In the final part of the series D J Clark returns to Beijing to see what plans are being made to celebrate the Games in China. At the Water Cube he finds a street that has been built to give visitors the London experience and elsewhere a series of arts and culture events across 17 cities in China.
In the ninth part of the series D J Clark investigates the London transport system as it braces itself for the 2012 Olympics. An upgraded subway system, new buses, the javelin train and bikes for all are all featured in this short transport roundup.
At the Beijing Olympics China topped the medals table with 100 in total, 51 of them Gold. But has the Chinese team peaked, can they continue to remain in the top spot in London? In the eighth part of the series D J Clark looks at prospects for the Chinese athletes travelling to the London games and highlights the key people to loom out for this summer.
In the seventh part of the series D J Clark discovers that contrary to popular belief, the English have a taste for good food and London is the centre of a new multicultural fine dining experience. Taking you through a food day, the story starts with an English breakfast and goes on to cover, coffee, a seafood lunch, high tea at the Park Lane Hotel, a Indian curry dinner and a visit to the Spitalfields night market.
In the sixth part of the series Cecily Liu goes down to Scotland Yard, the central command of London's metropolitan police to speak to Chris Allison, the National Olympic Security Coordinator from the Metropolitan Police. There she asks him about the main threats to the summer games and what measures the police are taking to make sure the event passes without incident.
In the fifth part of the series D J Clark visits CCTV in Beijing and the BBC in London to investigate new innovations in TV technology and to find out what audiences in China can expect at home.
In the fourth part of D J Clark's series from England he takes a bus tour around the capital city stopping to visit London Partners, the organisation charged with organising the influx of tourists 2012 is expected to bring. During the investigation Clark discovers Chinese tourists are amongst the most valued as their connection with the city often goes beyond a single visit.
In the third part of D J Clark's series from England he takes an Olympic park tour and discusses the venues being used for the event with the chief executive of the organising committee.
In the second part of D J Clark's series from England he travels north to Leeds where he looks at the preparations for the Chinese pre Olympic training camp. Here he discovers, contrary to much discussion on the Chinese micro blogs, that the athletes will not be based in Leeds for the actual games but rather use the facilities to help them recuperate from their journey to the UK.
On the 27th of July this year the Olympic opening ceremony will get underway in East London marking the start of 17 days of fierce sporting competition. China will seek to defend the first place in the medal table it achieved four years previous in Beijing as the world turns its eyes to England.
Over the next ten weeks D J Clark will be reporting from London, to find out how the preparations are going, how London seeks to compare to the Beijing games and what lies in store for the Chinese athletes and audience. In the first part he introduces the event.
In China it is often said that you really have not seen the country properly unless you have stood on the Great Wall. In Africa they say no visit is complete without seeing the Victoria Falls.
Da Shuhua is a 500 year old tradition practiced in Nuanquan Zhen on the border between Shanxi and Hebei provinces during the Lantern festival.
The 2012 annual meeting of Asia News Network (ANN), hosted by The Kathmandu Post, kicked off in Nepal's capital earlier this month.
In the last episode of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark visits villagers in Qinghai province to find out how the recently announced Chinese rural development policy, that will guide developments for the next ten years, meets the needs of some of China's poorest communities.
In the ninth part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark visits villagers in Gansu province to investigate how the new rural pension scheme is being received.
A total of 199 million Chinese rural residents had joined the country's rural pension insurance program by the middle of last year according the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The small statutory payment varies from province to province and can be topped up by paying higher rates into the scheme during their working years. The basic pension, although small, is a first step at providing cover to all rural residents after they reach 60, reducing their dependency on their families to support them.
In the eighth part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark visits the local doctors in Kengxi village who explain how the recent rural health insurance initiative have benefitted the local community.
Back in 2005 medical insurance was predominantly for city dwellers, covering only about a quarter of China's population and 80% of all the medical facilities were based in urban areas. To offset this imbalance, China set out a five-year plan to rebuild the rural medical service system by supporting the construction of county-level hospitals, grassroots medical care institutions and village clinics. They also setup a new affordable rural healthcare insurance, all in all spending 1.13 trillion yuan over the last three years according to Vice Minister of Finance Wang Jun.
In the seventh part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark visits Shengxianzhai village where a new water system has recently been put in place. Six years ago China's ministry of water resources estimated 300 million rural residents did not have access to safe drinking water and set about creating a plan to put a tap in every home by 2020. In this small Guangdong village Clark discovers the benefits of treated drinking water in a community that used to have to walk two kilometres to fetch water that would not make them sick.
In the sixth part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark travels to Hunan province, into the heart of mainland China. There he finds migrant workers returning to a small village to celebrate Chinese New year.
In the fifth part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark talks to farmers in Jiangfushan village, Hebei where he discovers a new road, built as part of a central government push to connect villages across China, has transformed the communities fortunes.
In the fourth part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark visits a school in Fuzhou bay in Liaoning province. Perched on the rocky shoreline the village has been through some difficult times with the closure of several mines but changes fish farming has meant the villagers have found alternative forms of income. The school has also seen improvements over the past years with new investment in teacher training and classroom technology.
In the third part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark travels to Xin Jia village in Jilin province where he braves minus 17 degrees Celsius temperatures to investigate changes in the village over the past 30 years. He finds the mud and straw houses have been rebuilt with modern materials and the villagers are all busy enriching in various enterprises.
In the second part of the Rural China series, China Daily reporter D J Clark travels to the far North East of China to visit Qingshan, a small farming community that has been transformed by the building of new ski centre. Here he wanders the freezing village main street talking to local residents to find out how life has changed since the resort was built.
Over the past three decades, China has made sustained progress in raising the standard of living of its rural population. Using China's previous definition
the number of people living below the poverty line in rural areas declined from 250 million in 1978 to 27 million in 2010. Last week the government redefined the poverty line from a net yearly income of 1,196 RMB to 2,300 RMB and in doing so added 100 million rural residents deemed poor and able to claim poverty subsidies. In this first part of a series D J Clark explains the five stages of rural development undertaken by the Chinese government in the last 30 years.
Everyday Milan Lohani leaves his small farmhouse in the Himalayan foothills and walks half an hour to school. Milan's school library had relied on second hand books sent by overseas donors until three years ago when the internet came to town. It has taken him and his classmates little time to workout how to utilize the information they find online for getting news, information for study and helping their families farm. Like other teenagers around the world they also use the web for social networking.
Lured by a painting he saw of a barefoot doctor in a Chinese magazine, Dr Saroj Dhital moved to Shanghai to study medicine. Returning to Nepal he took the lessons he learned from China's barefoot doctors and applied them to the villages of Nepal. Over time the concept expanded to use video conferencing via the internet as a means to allow barefoot doctors to bring complicated cases to specialists in Kathmandu.
In the final part of the series, D J Clark describes his journey across Ethiopia and reveals a very different place than he had imagined before taking on the assignment. Under the guide of local photographer Johnny Zirotti he takes time out of his reporting tasks to investigate the old streets of Harar.
As part of a drive initiated by China's Ministry of Commerce to help improve livelihoods in Africa, 142 agricultural projects have been set up across the continent, including 14 specialized agricultural technology demonstration centers. In this video D J Clark travels 85 kilometers outside the Ethiopian capital to visit the new Ethiopia-China Agricultural Technology Demonstration centre and speak to the people involved in its creation.
Formed just ten years ago, the African Union has quickly become a key institution in the continent for building peace and stability as well as dealing with common issues affecting all 54 countries. In this video China Daily reporter D J Clark visits the new 800 million RMB Africa Union headquarters donated by China to investigate why supporting the institution is important for long term food security in the continent.
Born, brought up and educated in Beijing, Lu Wei has since worked all around the world on UNICEF health programs. Now director of UNICEF Ethiopia's health program she sat down with China Daily to tell her life story and explain why it's important for China to be supporting health care in Africa.
In the second in a series of videos on the African food crisis, D J Clark meets a family struggling to survive in Ethiopia's worst hit area. The horn of Africa has suffered it's worst drought in sixty years and although the seasonal rains are now starting to arrive, in Ethiopia, 4.5 million people are still reliant on direct food aid to survive according to the UN. Last week the first of a series of Chinese food shipments arrived in Ethiopia to help the local government deal with a shortfall of food aid.
The UN estimates there are currently 13.3 million people across the horn of Africa in need of emergency assistance divided between Ethiopia (4.5 million), Kenya (3.75 million) and Somalia (4 million) plus an additional 150,000 in Djibouti. In the first of a six part series D J Clark describes the current situation and the role China is playing in the relief effort.
In the eighth of a series of travel stories D J Clark stops over for one night in Bangkok, where he is taken on a whirlwind tour of some of Bangkok's night markets, temples and eateries.
In the seventh of a series of travel stories D J Clark travels to one of Asia's most conflict ridden cities in the west of Mindanao, the Philippines. Spending a morning under the guard of three Marines he took a tour with a local TV reporter of this historic yet troubled city.
In the sixth of a series of travel stories D J Clark meets photographer Kat Palasi in the old shopping district of Manila, Philippines and takes him on a short tour of her childhood memories.
In the fifth of a series of travel stories D J Clark takes the fast train from Beijing to Tianjin to spend a day with documentary maker Du Hai discovering parts of his home town often missed by normal tourist trips.
In the fourth of a series of travel stories D J Clark Takes up a recommendation to spend a weekend in Xiamen and takes to the internet to find local residents to give him hints on places off the tourist trail.
In the third of a series of travel stories D J Clark meets photographer Chang He in his hometown Shanghai. Chang He starts the day by giving Clark a google map of his favourite places around the city and sends him off for a packed day of discovery.
In the second of a series of travel stories D J Clark meets photographer Wang Jingchun in his favourite city of Dali, Yunnan.
In the first of a series of travel stories D J Clark sets off to discover the Bangladeshi capital city of Dhaka with renowned photographer GMB Akash as his guide.
In the last part D J Clark returns to Beijing to investigate the development of urban farming as a means to mitigate increasing global food prices.
This video, the fifth in a series on the looming food crisis in Asia, looks at biotechnology as one of many different solutions to increase crop yields.
In this part Clark investigates the role of markets and governments in managing access to food.
In the third part of this series, D J Clark discusses increasing food insecurity in cities where access to food rather than the lack of food is a rising issue.
In the second of a six part series investigating the growing gap between food production and global population growth, DJ Clark crosses the Chinese border into the western hills of Nepal to investigate food shortages in vulnerable rural communities.
In the first of a six part series investigating the growing gap between food production and global population growth, DJ Clark explains the key issues facing Asia and how they have arisen.
On a journey across southern Africa to investigate the World Cup Legacy, D J Clark found a small grassroots soccer scheme that was helping communities in the semi dessert towns of the Karoo to fight HIV/Aids.
D J Clark drives from the centre of the South African Karoo down to Cape Town and discovers breath taking landscapes, welcoming guest houses and a few very interesting characters.
In the streets around Dhaka University in Bangladesh, families turn up in their thousands to celebrate together with traditional music, face painting and a parade down Kazi Nazrul Islam Ave.
In This video D J Clark dons his walking boots and goes to investigate the great Himalaya Trail.
Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi has transformed Singapore's most famous landmark, the merlion, into a one-bedroom hotel as part of the Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House art project.
The lion/fish was dreamed up in 1964 by the Singapore tourist board as a symbol for the city representing a mix between 'singapura' ('lion city') and the sea where Singapore's history was based. Later, in 1972, it was turned into a statue on Marina Bay and has since become a main feature of the city.
The Third Beijing Dragon Boat Culture Festival kicked off at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park over the weekend. Visitors were treated to a whole series of cultural folk displays, dragon and lion dances a cultural heritage bazaar and three days of dragon boat races at the Olympic water sports venue.
New Zealand photographer Tom Hutchins spent four months in 1956 travelling through China on an exclusive assignment for Life Magazine. Fifty years later, photographic historian John Turner discovered this rare archive and set about piecing together a unique collection.
Named last month by travel website Expedia as a top ten top pick of winter beach destinations, and host to Miss Universe in 2008 and Miss Earth in 2010, Vietnam's premiere seaside resort, Nha Trang is on the up.
Ho Chi Minh, or Saigon as it is better known, offers the independent traveller an adventurous short break. Arranging a motorbike city tour is more expensive than taking the bus but there is no set route and can offer a very different view of Vietnam's most populated city.
After 20 years of water shortages in Kathmandu, Nepal, local entrepreneur Sushil Shrestha restored an ancient stone tap system by harvesting rainwater.
The wedding of Prince William of Wales with Catherine Middleton in London, UK was celebrated with street parties across the country. China Daily's D J Clark was in London for the day as a spectator and also found a group of Chinese students to give their impression on how the lavish event unfolded.
In a Beijing gallery exhibiting bikini clad mannequins smothered in dirt, Greenpeace Toxic campaigner Zhao Yan delivered findings of an investigation into water pollution from two textile towns in China's Guangdong province.
Over a million people visited the Shanghai World Expo on Saturday, a record number since it opened. D J Clark was there for China Daily and reports back on what its like to be one in a million.
Shanghai student Wang Shan was one of 58,000 volunteers who worked at the expo over the last six months. In the last weeks before it closed she returns with her family to enjoy the event as a visitor.