Efforts to protect 'mother river' make progress

HEFEI — As the chilly spring breeze lightly brushed their cheeks, a father and his son stood on the deck of a boat on the Yangtze River, known as a "mother river" of the Chinese nation. This is just another ordinary workday for them.

For 17 years, Zhang Pinghe, the 58-year-old father, has dedicated himself to collecting shipping waste along the Tongling section of the Yangtze River.

"See how clean the water is now. After years of waste collection, we seldom see rubbish on the surface of the river," Zhang says.