Yang Xin
President of Sichuan-based environmental group Green River

Yang Xin is the founder of China's first non-governmental nature conservation station, Sonan Dajie Nature Conservation Station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. While the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was being built, Yang and his team of volunteers conducted a series of surveys at the top of the Yangtze River and in Hoh Xil. The team studied the population and distribution of the Tibetan antelope, worked on a traffic lights project for the antelopes, assessed the litter situation along the railway, monitored glacial shrinkage and studied the ecology of the Yangtze River source area. When the railway was operational, volunteers hopped on and spoke about environmental protection to passengers to raise awareness. Yang sent the survey results to the railway construction department and local governments, urging them to strengthen ecological and environmental protection along the railway line. Almost all of his suggestions were adopted. In 2006, Yang completed work on his pictorial, Yangtze River in China.

(China.org.cn, January 29, 2006)