Premiere of films about Chinese national parks

Czech nature conservation expert and former director of the Šumava National Park, Jiří Mánek, is organising the premiere of documentary films about Chinese national parks, which were created based on his original idea in collaboration with China Media Group (CMG). The screening will take place at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Prague, which has provided its facilities for this exceptional event.

Prague – On Thursday, 20 November, the Chinese Embassy will host a special cultural and professional event – the premiere of a trilogy of documentary films about Chinese national parks, organised by Jiří Mánek, a renowned Czech expert on ecology, forestry and tourism.

The films were made in 2024–2025 in cooperation with the Chinese state media group CMG and offer Czech audiences a previously unseen view of Chinese nature, local nature conservation rules, the lives of local residents living in new national parks, and the philosophy of harmonious coexistence between humans and the landscape.

The event was attended by KSČM Chairwoman Kateřina Konečná, Libor Vondráček, Chairman of the Free Party and Member of Parliament, Dalibor Mička, representative of the Department of Asian and Pacific States of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jiří Mánek, former Director of the Šumava National Park, as well as experts and academics in the field of ecology and the environment, media representatives and nearly 70 friends from various social circles.

Jiří Mánek is the author of the concept, co-author of the script and, above all, the guide in all the films. He managed to get Chinese professionals – both from CMG and from individual national parks – excited about the project. Filming took place in the very heart of the Chinese wilderness, where even Chinese tourists do not normally go. He was the first European to visit the inaccessible areas of all five newly established Chinese national parks, becoming a symbol of the combination of expertise, perseverance and personal passion for Chinese nature.

"For two years now, I have not left China, either physically or in my thoughts; I am fascinated by it. These are things that we here in Europe have no idea about. Our public, both lay and professional, has only vague or distorted ideas – or none at all. I am fortunate to be able to get to know a different world, a different culture and different rules, and I want to share this information here. We chose the embassy for the premiere because it is the most suitable and symbolic place where I can present this joint work for the first time.,says project author Jiří Mánek.

The trilogy presents three of the five newly established Chinese national parks: the Siberian Tiger and Amur Leopard National Park in north-eastern China, where the world's rarest big cats are returning after decades; Sanjiangyuan – the source of three rivers, the cradle of the Yangtze, Yellow and Mekong rivers, an area two and a half times larger than the entire Czech Republic; and the Giant Panda National Park in Sichuan, where the number of pandas – the global symbol of nature conservation – is growing.

The films were created out of pure personal enthusiasm, without commercial support, in close cooperation with Chinese institutions – primarily the China Media Group and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA), as well as individual national parks. Each film captures not only the unique natural environment, but also the stories of the people who live and work in the parks and protect nature for future generations.

In recent years, China has been building the largest national park system in the world and has extremely ambitious plans for nature conservation in the future. A new National Parks Act, which unifies their management and protection, has been in force since September 2025. The current five parks cover a total area of over 230,000 km² – more than all 67 American national parks combined. Another 44 candidate areas are in the pipeline, which will expand the system to more than 1.1 million km². The entire project is to be completed by 2035.

The premiere of the 45-minute compilation of three films is private and will take place in an intimate atmosphere with approximately sixty guests in attendance – friends, foresters, journalists, environmentalists, diplomats, and personalities from the fields of culture and media. The evening will include commentary by Jiří Mánka on his experiences from filming and on the Chinese approach to nature conservation, followed by an informal meeting with guests and journalists.

What began as a personal expedition by a Czech natural scientist turned into repeated visits and deep insights, which today build a cultural and scientific bridge between the Czech Republic and China. Jiří Mánka's films show that nature conservation is not just about rules and science, but above all about relationships, humility and the ability to understand the landscape and the people who live in it.

„In recent years, China has been actively and deeply involved in global environmental governance and has played a leading role in bilateral and multilateral cooperation in areas such as combating climate change. This marks a fundamental shift for China from being a participant to a leader in global environmental governance. China has consistently fulfilled its commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and has made significant progress in fulfilling its nationally determined contributions for 2030. China has achieved its targets for total installed wind and solar power capacity and forest biomass reserves ahead of schedule. China was the first country in the world to establish a system of ecological protection red lines and is promoting the construction of the world's largest national park system. To date, China has become the country with the fastest and largest growth in forest resources, the largest area of artificially planted forests, the largest scale of renewable energy use, and the fastest improving air quality in the world. The number of international wetland cities in China has reached 22, the highest in the world.“ He told Feng Biao, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Czech Republic.

CMG