Yangtze River Exploration Team

At 14:30 on Nov. 25, 1986, members of the Yangtze River Exploration Team landed on Hengsha Island at the estuary of the Yangtze River amid strong winds, completing their five-month drift successfully.

As the longest river in China, the Yangtze River is one of the challenges explorers routinely aim to conquer. Rao Maoshu set off adrift on the river by himself in June 1985, but he later died in an accident. In October 1985, a drift team consisting of 54 people was set up in Sichuan province. The members included drifting experts, scientists, journalists and security guards. Fifteen of them were main drifters, with an average age of 25.

On June 3, 1986, the team departed from Chengdu, Sichuan, and headed for the source of the Yangtze River: Tuotuo River, which is located north of Lhasa. Their expedition started on June 16, 1986, during which they collected more than 1,000 hydrological and geological specimens and shot more than 3,000 photos. In the water area of Jinsha River, they collected records on landslides and mud-rock flows.

The team conquered 250 dangerous shoals and finished 16 scientific programs on ecological protection and utilization in the upper area of the Yangtze River. Five of the members, Kong Zhimin, Wang Jianjun, Wang Zhen, Yang Qianming and Wan Ming, died during the exploration.