Born in China

The film follows three animal families through the course of a year in the wilds of China: the giant panda, the snow leopard, the golden snub-nosed monkey, & the chiru antelope.

In the Qinghai Plateau in western China, lives a mother snow leopard named Dawa, who has two cubs. Dawa struggles to keep her cubs safe from danger, like a rival snow leopard, who is encountered & easily driven off in spring, but soon returns in fall with three of his sons and attacks Dawa, but she cannot chase all off and allows them to stay. Winter approaches and Dawa tries hunting a sheep but is injured. A year goes by, and in the spring, she dies from being charged at by a domestic yak while trying to hunt down its baby, while Dawa's cubs live together without their mother.

Far to the east of Dawa, in the Sichuan mountain valleys of central China, lives a young golden snub-nosed monkey named TaoTao, who is jealous of his newborn baby sister, but to make matters worse, his parents start to neglect and reject him. TaoTao soon befriends a group of young outcast monkeys called "The Lost Boys", led by an adult male monkey named Rooster, but after the leader gets into a fight with TaoTao's father in autumn, the young monkey himself abandons the Lost Boys and rejoins his family in winter. At first, they won't let him in, but decide to bring him into their warm arms. When spring approaches, TaoTao spends more time by himself and less time around his family, but when a Goshawk is about to catch his sister, TaoTao comes to the rescue and is welcomed back into his family's arms.

Right next door to TaoTao, in a lush bamboo forest on the other side of the mountain, lives YaYa the giant panda and her new daughter MeiMei. The baby becomes fascinated by the wonders of their home, but YaYa is overprotective for her, knowing that danger can be by at any moment. Time passes, and MeiMei grows into a healthy young Panda. She dreams of climbing a tree after noticing a red panda. MeiMei soon becomes a young adult, and in the spring, she successfully climbs a tall tree for the first time. Proud of her daughter, YaYa knows that is time to say goodbye, and departs into the forest.

Up in the higher elevations of western China, a herd of chiru antelope live on the plains near the Qinghai Plateau. Every spring, the females leave for Zhuonai Lake in the uplands to raise their young, while the males are left behind. After the young are ready for the journey home in autumn, they set for home & their fathers, while having to face wolf threats that want to eat the young. Upon return, the mating season restarts, as the males & females cannot identify their mates & young after being distanced from each other for 2 seasons.

The film ends with the animals living their own lives. Dawa's cubs remain in the mountains, playing with each other, TaoTao and his father take a walk in the river, a giant panda (possibly YaYa) has another baby, and a chiru spends his days running and impressing a mate, growing every day. The narrator also says that, in Chinese mythology, when one life ends, a red-crowned crane carries that soul, to rejoin the cycle of birth and rebirth.

• Official website
• Born in China at IMDb