In her second series of culinary globetrotting, chef and author Peta Mathias visits Beijing to explore the food of Northern China. She finds a cuisine shaped by harsh winters and scorching summers — and influenced by Mongol invaders and centuries of imperial dynasties (but Mao’s heyday is only glimpsed in a theme restaurant run by an American). A night market offers delicacies including locusts, scorpions, cockroaches and silkworms, and Peta investigates Peking Duck, the ubiquitous dumplings and just a few of the ways that duck eggs can be preserved.

TVNZ’s 80s arts programme follows a Royal NZ Ballet visit to China in this documentary directed by Keith Hunter. The trip is billed as a cultural exchange but the term belies the stresses of missing equipment, a director who has lost his voice, language barriers, incorporating a local seven-year-old girl into their performance and, for some, the dishes at a banquet. On a rare day off, there’s a chance to marvel at the scale of the The Great Wall; and there are insights into the everyday lives of the Chinese people as the country begins to open itself up to the world.

This six-part Māori Television series documents the experiences of six Māori language students from around the country, on a three-week cultural field trip to Beijing, China. The teenagers take their own cameras to record their experiences. They attend a local high school, live with Chinese families, and take in the local sites and sounds. The series is in Te Reo Māori, with English sub-titles. In this episode, the students learn how to get around Beijing using the local transport, they visit schools and find out about calligraphy, and they tour Beijing’s legendary Forbidden City.

The work of Dunedin artist and surfer Simon Kaan explores his Māori (Ngāi Tahu), Pākehā (Scottish) and Chinese heritage. His studio in Port Chalmers is an old fruit shop his Chinese grandfather ran. In 2004 Simon won a three-month residency at Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery. Directed by Andrew Bancroft, this Artsville story follows Kaan on a tour of Beijing markets and galleries, as he prepares for a show opening. Kaan, who also narrates the piece, is able to visit family whenua: the village that his grandparents left behind for New Zealand.

This six-part Māori Television series documents the experiences of six Māori language students from around the country, on a three-week cultural field trip to Beijing, China. The teenagers take their own cameras to record their experiences. They attend a local high school, live with Chinese families, and take in the local sites and sounds. The series is in Te Reo Māori, with English sub-titles.

In this full-length Intrepid Journey actor/director Katie Wolfe takes her "appalling sense of direction" to China, a country caught between old ways and new. Wolfe travels by plane, boat, cyclo and train, which she calls "the perfect way to travel". She does three days in the Blade Runner-like cityscapes of Shanghai, where she meets an 86-year-old dancer, and visits the Forbidden City of Beijing. Wolfe also heads up the Yangtze River, visiting ghostly cities and apartment blocks, drained of people by major dam construction — before stumbling upon a most effective way to haggle.

This six-part Māori Television series documents the experiences of six Māori language students from around the country, on a three-week cultural field trip to Beijing, China. The teenagers take their own cameras to record their experiences. They attend a local high school, live with Chinese families, and take in the local sites and sounds. The series is in Te Reo Māori, with English sub-titles. In this episode, the students check out the food markets, learn about Chinese sports, and visit the Great Wall of China.

Attitude is a weekly series looking at the issues and interests of people living with a disability. This Attitude special follows the Wheel Blacks wheelchair rugby team over four years, as they prepare for the upcoming 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Four Wheel Blacks were on the production team of Attitude at the time; player and original Attitude co-host Curtis Palmer presents the programme. The documentary follows the team from their 2004 gold medal win at the Athens Paralympics, through various international competitions in the lead-up to Beijing.

“These three birds are over half the world population of their species.” Peter Hayden’s narration lays bare the stakes for the Chatham Island black robin, and the Wildlife Service team (led by Don Merton) trying to save them. Merton’s innovative methods include removing eggs from nests – to encourage the last two females to lay again – and placing them in riroriro (grey warbler) foster homes. The black robin documentaries helped forge the reputation of TVNZ's Natural History Unit. Paul Stanley Ward writes about the documentaries here, and the mission to save the black robin.