A self-employed adventurer was forced to give up his 2,000-kilometer dinghy ride last night when maritime authorities in the city refused to allow him into the Huangpu River due to safety concerns.

 

Wu Xiaoliang, 27, began his trip in the Xiangjiang River in Hunan Province, a tributary of the Yangtze River. He planned to float along the Yangtze to the Huangpu River, but was forced to end the trip around 6pm yesterday.

 

"The Xiangjiang River is in my hometown, the Yangtze River is a mother river of our nation and the Huangpu River is in Shanghai, a city that I have always liked very much," Wu said when explaining how he chose his route.

 

Wu paddled into Shanghai waterways from Kunshan, in neighboring Jiangsu Province, on Wednesday but was stopped by patrol boats from the local maritime safety administration.

 

Maritime officials spotted him in the Jiangqiao water areas in the city's Jiading District, and asked him to leave the river early yesterday.

 

"They stopped me from going on paddling due to shipping safety concerns," Wu said.

 

Stopped repeatedly

 

He had been stopped for similar concerns in several provinces along the way, but continued with his trip nonetheless.

 

Wu hoped to continue his trip near the Bund last night, but officials finally put an end to the journey. He was riding to the Bund yesterday afternoon on a bicycle given to him by authorities in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, when they forced him from the water on July 17.

 

Wu, who studied economics at Tsinghua University in Beijing, claims the trip was meant to celebrate the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover as well as raising public attention to support college students in starting their own business.

 

He is not raising money for any of those causes or doing anything other than floating along various waterways, however.

 

The lonely adventurer was travelling with only three life buoys, a life jacket and two whistles for use during emergencies.

 

Xue Dezhang, an official with local Dongjiadu Maritime Safety Division - the water administration responsible for shipping safety on the Huangpu River, told Shanghai Daily yesterday afternoon that officials would not allow Wu to float along the waterway.

 

"We will definitely not allow him to float on the Huangpu River. We have patrol boats on the river around the clock. He would be discovered quickly by the patrol officers," said Xue.

 

Sailors and ships must be authorized to sail on Chinese waterways and trips like Wu's are illegal unless approved by maritime authorities, according to the maritime law.

 

Zhou Zhengbao, a spokesman for the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, said Wu's adventure is a great threat to his own safety as well as hampering shipping order, especially on busy shipping routes.

 

Before calling it a day, Wu floated along waterways in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.

 

(Shanghai Daily August 3, 2007)