Chinese actor and singer Hu Ge (also known as Hugh Hu), famous for his roles in a number of popular historical TV dramas, recently publicised his environmental protection activities in the Tibetan plateau.
Earlier this month, Hu gave a lecture at an event entitled “Role Models Around Us”, in which he introduced the work he has been doing with “Green River” (绿色江河), an NGO which aims to protect the environment of the Changjiang River (also known as the Yangtze River).
An article published yesterday on the official WeChat account of Green River summarises his talk and recent activities with them. In June 2013, Hu Ge went to Sanjiangyuan (an area of the Tibetan plateau that is the source of the Yellow, Changjiang and Mekong rivers) for the first time as an “ambassador for the protection of the Anser indicus (bar-headed goose)”, a bird native to the Himalayan region. As he recalled in his lecture, when he got there he couldn’t help but kneel down and kowtow three times towards the source of the three rivers. Hu Ge, a native of Shanghai, in the Yangtze River estuary, was deeply in awe of what he saw. “I thought I had gone there to give love, but in fact nature gave it to me.”
From 2016 to now, Hu Ge has visited the area numerous times to continue his environmental journey. He joined up with volunteers to pick up carpet garbage along the 20-meter wide area on the Hoh Xil side of the Qinghai-Tibet highway, climbed to Bande Mountain to investigate and extract data on wild animals photographed by infrared camera, searched for the Tibetan antelope’s habitat on the grasslands of the Tongtian River mouth, investigated the environment surrounding the mating land of the white-lipped deer in the River mouth, and of course did not forget to pack garbage and take it back to Golmud for recycling before leaving. He also provided technical support and guidance to the team charged with monitoring and filming the Anser indicus’ hatching, by virtue of his professional expertise.
The article notes that the conditions of the protection stations were arduous, but when Hu Ge went there he would mop the floor, clean the toilets, fetch water and cook every day. He was highly thought of by his colleagues and the volunteers in the team.
