{"id":26638,"date":"2026-10-02T18:01:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=26638"},"modified":"2026-10-02T18:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:16:36","slug":"after-39-years-guarding-the-yellow-rivers-source-he-sees-it-meet-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eng.dragonmedia.com.np\/?p=26638","title":{"rendered":"After 39 Years Guarding the Yellow River\u2019s Source, He Sees It Meet the Sea<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragon Media News Desk<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cUncle, do you know what it looks like where the Yellow River flows into the sea?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell you the truth, I don\u2019t know much about it either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gech\u00f6 has lived near the Yellow River\u2019s source since childhood and knows its headwaters well. Yet his nephew, Sonam Dorje, had asked a question that left him unsure. For 39 years, he had lived on and protected the vast grasslands, walking across them day after day and month after month. When the pasture deteriorated, he worried. In recent years, as the grass began to grow more vigorously, his face grew brighter too.<\/p>\n

Looking at the small stream before him at the river\u2019s source, Gech\u00f6 knew where the Yellow River began, but not where it ended. He had kept watch over the grasslands and monitored the water source to honour a responsibility entrusted to him by his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you like to see for yourself where the Yellow River meets the sea?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would,\u201d Gech\u00f6 replied without hesitation.<\/p>\n

This summer, a reporter accompanied Gech\u00f6 and his nephew on a journey from the river\u2019s source to its lower reaches. Gech\u00f6 is regarded as the first caretaker of his family\u2019s pasture in the Maqu region. His family has lived for decades in the Yagqu Tsangl\u00e9 valley, near the Yellow River\u2019s headwaters.<\/p>\n

For Gech\u00f6, who is nearly 40, the farthest place he had ever travelled with his entire family was Lhasa. He said he had long regretted not being able to read or speak Mandarin. \u201cI would like to travel and see more places, but I can\u2019t go far,\u201d he said.
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Setting out from the river\u2019s source, Gech\u00f6 boarded an aeroplane for the first time. From the sky, he looked down at the Yellow River. He and his nephew watched the world outside the window in amazement, filming it on their phones.<\/p>\n

Gech\u00f6 said his father\u2019s generation did not know the term \u201cecological conservation.\u201d Yet they revered the source of the water. They believed people should not shout loudly near it at night, kill animals there, or wash their hands at the source after slaughtering livestock.<\/p>\n

Before his father died in 2009, he left Gech\u00f6 a clear instruction: the Yellow River\u2019s source must be protected; the family\u2019s pasture must not be leased to others, and the family must not be separated. Gech\u00f6 was 20 at the time. He became head of the household and began guarding the river\u2019s source on his own.<\/p>\n

For years, he patrolled the grasslands on foot or by motorbike. He also made a habit of collecting rubbish and helping injured or stranded animals. Sometimes, when he asked people not to litter, they would respond: \u201cWhat does rubbish at the Yellow River\u2019s source have to do with us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gech\u00f6 could not always explain the issue in elaborate terms. But he understood that the river supplied water to many people downstream. If its source was polluted, the water they drank could be affected too.<\/p>\n

As the plane flew over the Yellow River\u2019s lower reaches, the reporter pointed out the river below. Looking at its broad expanse, Gech\u00f6 said, \u201cI had never seen before today how wide the Yellow River is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the journey continued, he began paying attention to the cities, wetlands and birds along its banks. \u201cI\u2019m going to write the cities along the Yellow River in my patrol diary,\u201d he told the reporter.<\/p>\n

They travelled by plane, then by car, and finally by boat, eventually reaching the place where the Yellow River flows into the sea. Standing on the boat, Gech\u00f6 gazed for a long time at the point where the river and sea meet. His thoughts turned, as they often did, to his late father.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father used to say, \u2018The Yellow River does not flow into the sea, and the sea does not flow into the Yellow River.\u2019 I wondered why, even though they are both water, they could not mix. Now I can see what he meant.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 39 years, Gech\u00f6 had finally reached the other end of the great river he had spent his life protecting.<\/p>\n

At the intelligent monitoring centre of the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Shandong Province, he learned about the wetland ecosystem where the river meets the sea. For the first time, he saw the estuary wetlands up close and spotted many rare birds, including oriental white storks and black-billed gulls.<\/p>\n

When he speaks about the Yellow River now, Gech\u00f6 calls it \u201cthe mother river.\u201d The river nourishes the land, he says, and plants grow because they depend on water. Every drop at the source will eventually reach the sea.<\/p>\n

Only after travelling from the headwaters to the coast did Gech\u00f6 see the full length and breadth of the river he had protected. From far away, he also looked back for the first time at the pasture beneath his feet.<\/p>\n

After the trip, Gech\u00f6 and his nephew returned to the river\u2019s source. During the journey, he shared photographs in his family chat group and sent the reporter heart and thank-you emojis.<\/p>\n

The pasture remains the same, and the river continues to flow downstream from its source. Gech\u00f6 still has to patrol, measure the growth of the grass and protect the river. But the journey has taught him many things. He told his nephew, Sonam Dorje: \u201cDon\u2019t rush. The grass will grow again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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