My Chinese given name is White Pearl (Bai Zhen Ni). In the autumn of 1996, the Chinese environmental professor, who gave me the name "Pure Jewel," was murdered in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, the hotbed of Chinese capitalism and ecological disaster. His head was scalped and fingernails pulled out to identify the act as a Mafia hit. I dedicate my future NuJiang Preservation work to his memory, and to all environmentalists who have dedicated their lives to save "ourselves" - the Earth and its hapless inhabitants.

I do not tell you this to frighten you from doing environmental protection work in China, but to highlight that, in China, environmentalists are unsung heroes, whose work is tough, dangerous, and poorly rewarded. The ecological crisis is extreme and mostly stems from capitalistic development, not from communistic dogmatism. They need your help.

While my friend was being murdered, I was beginning the first Battle of a long War against great odds to preserve the Nu River of China - its clean, free flowing waters, the lifestyle of its tiny, unknown minority tribes, its virgin forests, and endangered non-human species. You can read about NuJiang Preservation River Expedition of 1996 here in my Web page, or not. No time for me to relax now and enjoy that success. Time is NOT on the side of NuJiang.

If you are just a student of the world with nothing to invest in this cause, read, enjoy my page and learn. This is the only educational Web page in the world dedicated to the Nu River (also known as Salween) of Asia, its peoples and species.

If you want to help, then spend your money, even if it's all of it at the moment, to sign up for one of our tours or expeditions. This is not slick or fake ecotourism. Over 50%, not just a fraction, of your package fee goes into NuJiang where it will do some good. And the experience will not only be life fulfilling, it will also be positively life altering.

The NuJiang River Preservation Project

In 1996, the NuJiang Preservation Project began with a hopeful premise. The NuJiang citizens want to learn how to be as independent as they can and to preserve their culture and home. They want to reduce dependency on the Emperor and to balance the extraction of their natural resources with some clean tourism. They have heard Foreigners are experts at making money from beautiful nature. Their original and still practiced religion is Animism - their mountains and rivers are sacred gods to them. To log the forests clean and to dig up the mountains and to dam the rivers is sacrilege in the extreme. But poverty, communism, and the "red eye" syndrome (capitalist greed) are destructive indeed in combination. To satisfy this lust, some people are killing too many tigers and bears, driving them to extinction. Mining entrepreneurs prowl the valley. The Chinese nouvelle riche demand for classic furniture is stripping off the last of China's virgin forests.

Sky High Emperor Far Away

This ancient Chinese proverb explains why NuJiang exists at all. A place where all religions are practiced in harmony, where Army officers act more like Peace Corps workers, where the people sing and dance by turquoise waters - an unreal place far from the brutal western factory of South China. And the emperor is a benign one compared to the past. NuJiang gets more subsidies from Beijing than she pays back. Tribute paid to the central government is small in actual dollars, but high in destruction. But NuJiang State can learn to make more money from the preservation of her mountain and river gods, instead of their destruction. That is our goal, with the help of foreign expertise and money working through the Nujiang Preservation Project.

White Pearl's Credentials

• Educated in Arkansas Public Schools, Stanford University, University of Oregon, USA, and Beijing University Law Department, China.

• Practicing attorney and educator for 25 years with no professional or ethical blemishes.

• Contract negotiator and mediator for Sino-American Upper Yangtze Expedition of 1986.

• White Pearl Associates, Inc., a USA corporation, dedicated to Peace and Environmental Protection through Trade with China.

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Webpage written and maintained by White Pearl Associates, Inc.