China Seminar | 12 March 1998

China Discoverers

Carolyn Robinson

The vast spaces of China’s northwest, abounding in wildlife and minorities, belie this land of 1.2 billion people. Some districts remain closed to foreigners, like Aksay Autonomous County at the border of Gansu and Qinhai provinces, just a few days drive from Dunhuang and the ancient Mogao Caves along the old Silk Road. Take a look at this inaccessible region in a new documentary produced by Freedom Forum Fellow Carolyn Robinson. She joined famed China explorer Wong How Man on an expedition to Aksay County last summer. His team from the China Exploration and Research Society searched for endangered animals like the blue sheep, wild yak and black-necked crane, and visited nomadic Kazaks.

A magna cum laude graduate of Kent State University with a major in mass communications, Carolyn Robinson has been working as a senior producer and reporter for Cable News Hong Kong, a CNN affiliate. Prior to that, she worked for CNN as a writer for Headline News and as a producer for CNN’s Medical Unit. A former Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center, Robinson is currently a Freedom Forum Asia Fellow at the University of Hawaii studying Mandarin and Chinese history.