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When Ma Jun stood on the banks of the mighty and yet polluted Yangtze River in 1994, he had vague idea that one day he would devote himself to a Mission Impossible: saving China's dying rivers.
Named as one of 100 Most Influential Persons of 2006 by Time magazine, Ma has spared no efforts to raise public participation in environmental protection. Backing him up is a brand-new information platform linking government, businesses and ordinary people.
Born in 1968, Ma often recalls the "good old days" of his childhood by the Jin'gouhe River, or Golden Hook River, a major source of water for Beijing residents. "The water glistened with swarms of fish," he remembers. With his friends, it was where Ma learned to swim.
On summer nights, Ma liked to go out to observe insects in the dim lamplight along the street. "Beijing was much smaller then, and surrounded by undeveloped farmland."
But, the Jin'gouhe River had smelt foul by the late of 1970s when the country's economic reform and opening-up started. And, Masays, "the water quality of the river was rated Category V, meaning not drinkable, by China's national standards."
"Many rivers in Beijing have lost their functions, except as outlets for waste water discharged by factories or households. Some of them simply dry up, for good. "
By the time Ma Jun graduated from university in 1993 and went to work for a media, his anxiety had been further aggravated by visits to the Yangtze River, the most important lifeline for people living in the south of China, whose ecology was deteriorating.
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