Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear all,
It’s been a while since the last upload — sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned.
Instead of spending last autumn in the Chinese mountains, I unexpectedly ended up in Germany for a rather extensive “full body overhaul”.
Not exactly the adventure I had in mind… but that’s life.
I’m back in China now, and the journey continues.
Thank you very much for staying with me, and a warm welcome to all new subscribers.
Winter in central China is not the most beautiful season. Nature suffers from cold and dry weather, but it recovers quickly once spring arrives.
I used this time to explore some lesser-known mountain regions in Zhejiang Province, south of Shanghai.
Around 70% of Zhejiang is covered by rugged and remote mountains, rising up to nearly 2,000 m. These landscapes were shaped over roughly 120 million years by erosion in a warm, wet, subtropical climate. On top of that, Zhejiang is one of the main landfall areas for typhoons.
At the same time, it’s one of China’s economic powerhouses — the remaining land seems almost entirely filled with cities, industry, and highways.
The advantage: excellent infrastructure and surprisingly easy access even to very remote areas.
Leaving the highways already gives a first impression of the landscape. Once you enter the mountains, it becomes truly overwhelming:
narrow and steep roads, carved into cliffs, surrounded by dense vegetation.
You’ll find new uploads from the Xianxia Mountains and the She Autonomous County on the channel.
Despite the winter vegetation, these roads are already beautiful — and they may give you a preview of what to expect when nature fully explodes there in the coming weeks.

One small note about this drive:
The camera is mounted the camera outside the car. So no conversation from inside disturbes the sound— only natural driving sounds like wind, decent engine noise, and the occasional honking on mountain roads.

I wanted to try this setup and would be happy to hear what you think about it.

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear all,
A warm welcome to all new friends here — and thank you so much for subscribing! 😊
The weather in Germany has been quite bad lately, mostly grey or rainy, and not ideal for filming nature. So I used this quieter time to review the channel. I was honestly a bit shocked when comparing my old Shennongjia videos with my recent Alps footage.
Last summer, someone told me that YouTube doesn’t accept 4K uploads — so I uploaded the Shennongjia videos only in HD.
To make things worse, most of the original footage is now on a broken external drive… but luckily, I managed to save the 4K clips from inside the nature reserve!
I have now completely re-cut the Shennongjia drive in full 4K, and the difference is huge. The beauty of the Daba Mountains — home of the famous Shennongjia Nature Reserve — finally comes through the way it should.
Even if you’ve seen some of the original videos, this new version might be worth watching again.
https://youtu.be/m863hoXUK1c

Shennongjia impressed me so deeply that I plan to return next year:
• Early spring for the blooming season
• Late autumn for the color changes
I’ll return now to China, next on the channel will be Huangshan Mountains in winter. ( January)
Thank you all very much for supporting my channel.
And if you’re planning your own trip, feel free to contact me anytime — I’m always happy to help.
________________________________________

2 months ago | [YT] | 0

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear All,
Nov. 5th, we had an exceptional fullmoon and sometimes I like to play around with my cameras and drones and share the technical possibilities they offer. The timelaps is somehow beautiful and the fading fog looks better than every fireworks.
Have fun and best regards
Eberhard
https://youtu.be/16Ee13CEtdM

3 months ago | [YT] | 0

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear All,
First, a warm welcome to all new subscribers. I’m very glad to see more like-minded people joining here — thank you for supporting this channel.
Some of you may be wondering about the channel name Driven by Nature and why the description focuses on Chinese mountain roads, while the recent videos came from Germany and the Alps.
To explain briefly:
My hometown is Passau in Germany, and I had to stay there longer than expected for medical treatment. I’ve lived in Shanghai for almost 30 years, and in mid-December I’ll be back in China. Then the journey of exploring Chinese mountain roads and remote valleys will continue.
The time in the Alps was wonderful — clear air, sunshine, and dramatic peaks. Perfect conditions for filming, and honestly: whether you look from 1,500 m to a 3,000 m peak in the Alps, or from 4,000 m to a 5,500 m peak in China — the feeling of looking up into the mountains is the same. 😊
But for me, the Alps were also something I had missed for a very long time.I grew up nearby and spend all free time with skiing in the places I revisited after decades now
On the other side, I am looking forward very much to returning to China.
There you find roads in remote regions where the car barely fits between rock walls, and the warm, humid climate creates incredibly lush vegetation. Because there were no glaciers during the ice age, many mountain ranges in Central and Southern China were shaped only by erosion — resulting in those unique, almost surreal rock formations like Huangshan and many other lesser-known areas.
It’s a different world — and sometimes a dangerous one.
Rockfalls are common in bad weather, typhoons and hailstorms can change plans quickly, and during the holiday season the roads can get extremely crowded. Sometimes the best choice is simply to wait.
In general:
• Winter is the only dry season in the southern Chinese mountains.
• Central and Western China are best from early to late spring.
• Summer is difficult due to heat and mass travel.
• Late September onward is usually the best season again.

I just uploaded a short clip from my Chinese hometown, a northern Suburb of Shanghai, located directly on the shore of the Yangtze River


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKqJh...


It’s not too much nature there but the huge Estuary is somehow fascinating, specially in perfect clear air after a Typhoon was passing by
Thank you all again for being here.
I’m excited to take you with me when the road leads back into the mountains.

3 months ago | [YT] | 0

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

want to share this ! Lake Antholz in massiv clouds

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear all,
Our small community is slowly but steadily growing . A warm welcome to all new subscribers
Recognizing your acceptance for the content is for me like fueling up the car for the next mountainroads 😊
During our 5 days in the Alps we experienced 3 perfect sunny days, one day supplied us dramatic pictures with heavy clouds ( see attached ) , sometimes broken by sun and crystal blue sky
video Clip : Defereggen Valley
The next day we crossed 3 passes in perfect sunny weather
I just uploaded the first clip

https://youtu.be/cYpmMKV_rNg

Staller Sattel - Passo di Stalla from Austria to Italy
I can promise, 30 minutes of beautyfully pictures !

The next 3 videos will be

- The Gader Valley
- Passo Pordoi
- Passo Sella
-
Rounding up this perfect day
- Val Gardena and the ascent to Kastelruth
And that’s Dolomites pure! massiv, impressive rock formations resting on smooth bases with nice vegetation contrasting the rocks
For me the most beautifully part of the Alps
So, there’s still a lot to cut before I can start the video of the thrilling Stelvio drive

Thanks again and with best regards
Eberhard

4 months ago | [YT] | 0

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear All
The DJI Action Camera delivers excellent sharp pictures in beautifull colour and I uploaded all new movies from the Alps in highest possible resolution ( 4K)
To enjoy the full quality you may have to change your playback setting to 2160p60 4K
if successfully a small red 4K sign appears at the Settings Icon
Unfortunately the playback setting of youtube plays the clips mostly in lower HD resolution or even less

furthermore, if you're interested in nice Drone movies , I can recommend the channel of one of my subscribers

Mr Blackman
www.youtube.com/channel/UCKV_...

have fun
Eberhard

5 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 2

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear friends,

Thanks again for subscribing and supporting my channel — I’m very happy to see new faces joining from the Yangtse Gorge and Forgotten Valley videos. It shows me that strong visuals and hidden landscapes really connect with you.

I'm just back from a 5 days roadtrip in the Austrian, Italian and Swizz Alps. We crossed 8 passes and drove through beautifull valleys and gorges. I got tons of 4K footage in perfect weather. Please check a short teaser from the first 4 mountainroads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3GEE...
This may give you an idea what's comming in the next weeks
If you watch , please make sure that your Youtube playback setting is on 2160p60 . If so a, small red 4K sign appears on your setting icon and you can enjoy the perfect quality of the vids, I upload in highest possible quality


Editing will take me around 2–3 weeks, but I believe it will be worth the wait. After the teaser, you can look forward to complete episodes of legendary roads like Grossglockner, Pordoi & Sella, and Stelvio.

Thanks again for being here from the start — your support keeps me motivated on this journey.

Stay tuned,
Driven by Nature

5 months ago | [YT] | 1

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Update from Germany: Road Trips, Delays & Future Plans
Dear All,
Our community is slowly but steadily growing — a very warm welcome to all new subscribers! I’m truly grateful for your kind attention.
Now for the not-so-good part: you subscribed to a channel about Nature and Chinese mountain roads, but at the moment I’m only posting clips from Passau in Germany ☹. I hope you’re not too disappointed — I just wanted to bridge an unexpected break with some views of a beautiful town whose roots go back to around 280 AD.
2 or 3 short clips will follow, hope you enjoy them


Under normal circumstances, I would be on a plane to China today, preparing to start next Monday’s road trip through Shanxi (Qinling Mountains), Gansu, and Sichuan (Min and Hengduan Mountains). Unfortunately, my doctor thinks my body needs a bit of “service” before tackling passes up to 5,000 m. That means I had to cancel this trip, since most of the roads I planned to drive will already be closed by late autumn ☹.

Instead, I'm just working on a trip in November to Yunnan , Jade Snow Mountains and the southern Hengduan mountains.
In the meantime, while I’m in Germany , I’ll take the chance to film some road trips into the Austrian Alps. Next week we’ll drive the Grossglockner and Pustertaler High Roads, as well as the “Staller Sattel” on the Italian border. The weather looks promising, so I hope to capture some beautiful footage to upload soon


By the way, one of our subscribers runs a very nice channel about driving in Poland:
Worth to watch !

CarDrivingASMR
@CarDrivingASMR-1
•1.49K subscribers•126 videos

With best regards
Eberhard

5 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Eberhard Ritzau Driven by nature

Dear All,

First, a warm welcome to our new subscribers. I truly appreciate your support — thank you so much! 😊

Second, as always, plans and reality don’t always go hand in hand. Some minor health issues canceled my September plans for Gansu, Zaghana, and Cuo Daixi. I need to stay in Europe for some treatments but hope to continue exploring the Chinese mountains in November.

In June we were actually very lucky. We interrupted our planned trip to Shanxi, Sichuan, and Gansu after some perfect days in Shennongjia. Later, those exact destinations were hit hard by this year’s heavy monsoon, which caused severe flooding and landslides across central China, reaching even the Beijing area. Some of the mountain roads I had planned to drive were simply washed away. Hopefully, they will be rebuilt before the next dry season in autumn 2026.

In November, the plan is to continue in the southern Hengduan Mountains, along the Laotian border, and through the regions of the Nujiang, Salween, Mekong, and Yangtze rivers. But also here, the extreme weather has destroyed many of the small, beautiful mountain roads.

For now, I have captured some wonderful footage of Passau (my former hometown), a historic city in Lower Bavaria located at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Inn, and Ilz.

I also hope to get back into the mountains soon — driving the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse in the Austrian Alps, exploring some smaller mountain roads near the Italian border in the Dolomites, and maybe revisiting the Bavarian Forest, which is close to my home.

So, I hope you stay with us until we’re back on the road in China.
Any comments are always welcome, and if you’d like more information about any of these destinations, please feel free to contact me by mail.

Best regards,
Eberhard

5 months ago | [YT] | 0