Cleanup campaign restores Yangtze River habitat

Growing popularity

However, the critical comments subsided as Li persisted with his task, and a growing number of people showed their support by sharing his vision of a pristine riverbank.

In October 2016, Li founded Sanxia Yigong, which has about 380 active members and many more occasional participants.

He said that since the group was founded, the number of contacts on its WeChat account has risen sixfold to 3,500, and many people express deep interest in the group's activities.

To avoid short-lived popularity, Li has led by example. He has only missed three of the group's more than 500 collective operations, and each time he had a sound reason.

"Once was because I had to attend a crucial meeting related to my work, and once was for a relative's funeral. On the other occasion, I had to drive my son to the place where he took the national college entrance exam," he said.

In addition to support from the public, local authorities have also stepped in to aid his endeavors.

At first, the ant workers were unable to find suitable places to dispose of the garbage they collected, so they had to pile the trash up on the riverbank and hire a truck to carry it away every few weeks.

Now, authorities in the city's Xiling district have set up an office to assist the workers' activities, and also provide a truck to transport the waste immediately after every operation.

Li refuses all offers of financial assistance from local businesses. "We only accept donations such as trash bags, rubber gloves and bottled water," he said.

"I like to ask for donations on our WeChat moments feed, where users can share photos with captions or websites, because it helps to get them more involved in the process."

It seems that things are developing in Li's favor. According to the Yichang government, more than 600,000 volunteers have joined various activities designed to help restore the local environment, which is something the city can be proud of.