History

In June 1972, ITN's Sandy Gall joined British junior foreign minister Anthony Royle on his visit to the Chinese city of Shanghai, where Royle was to represent the British government in talks over a Chinese order for Concorde. Once in the country, Gall and ITN cameraman Jon Lane filmed a series of reports capturing different aspects of daily life in the People's Republic of China (PRC) under Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung). Gall's first report documented the historic party to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's jubilee thrown in the grounds of the British embassy in Beijing, which only five years ago had been attacked by Maoist students at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Two days later, Gall reported from the Great Wall of China, which he observed could be a 'gold mine' for the People's Republic if only they allowed Western tourists to visit. The following day, Gall reported on daily life in Shanghai and how life had been transformed in the city since the establishment of the PRC in 1949. His fourth report looked at the widespread application of acupuncture in Chinese health care, where the ancient practice was used in a range of cases, from treating deaf and mute children to anaesthetising patients during major surgeries. The fifth and final report was filmed in Beijing's Temple of Heaven, and the Imperial Vault's remarkable Echo Wall.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:39 1. Jubilee Party in British Embassy, Beijing (8 June 1972)
• 03:13 2. Great Wall of China (11 June 1972)
• 05:04 3. Life and Society in Shanghai (12 June 1972)
• 08:43 4. Acupuncture in Chinese health care (13 June 1972)
• 12:42 5. Temple of Heaven, Beijing (14 June 1972)