Have you ever seen the Yangtze River "write" its own name? By 2026, the directive to "jointly protect the river, not overdevelop it" will have echoed through the Hubei region for a full decade. At this pivotal moment, we take a satellite's-eye view from over 10,000 meters up to see how the Hubei section of the river, stroke by stroke, "spells out" the Chinese characters for "Yangtze" — its winding bends forming the water radicals, its straight banks the solid horizontal and vertical lines. Each stroke comes from a real stretch of the river, and each stretch tells a story of guardianship. From a villager calling monkeys in the gorge to a cyclist protecting birds on a sandbar; from a devoted father figure to the finless porpoise to a chemist safeguarding the water quality at the province's exit... these eight ordinary people, tied to eight riverbank stories, have each watched over their own piece of the river. Day after day, year after year, over the past decade, they have come together to create this splendid answer of clear waters and thriving life. Today, we follow these eight strokes to understand their "spell" of dedication.

Stroke 1: The First Curve of the "Long" Character

The first diagonal stroke of "Long" cuts across the Xiling Gorge's riverbank, marking the start of Yan Chengjun's eight-year companionship with macaques. "Hey, monkeys... chit chit chit chit chit..." Twice daily, morning and evening, Yan Chengjun of Niuzaping Village in Yichang's Dianjun District heads to the river to call out. During the Gezhouba Dam construction, this area was a major quarry, and the blasting drove away the mountain monkeys. By 2018, the reforested hills saw the return of monkey troops. His nearly 80-year-old father, eyes shining, urged him to care for these "grandchildren." After eight years of regular feeding, from tentative calls to the third-generation monkey king "Dashuai" leading over 40 family members to his whistle, Yan has become the famous "Three Gorges Monkey Brother." He smiles, saying villagers once relied on the rocks for a living, but now depend on the beautiful mountains and waters for a "scenic livelihood." It's a calculation that always proves worthwhile. Today, tourist boats departing Yichang, as they sail through the gorge, let visitors experience the real-life feeling of "the ceaseless chatter of monkeys on both banks."

Stroke 2: The Horizontal Line of "Long"

The second horizontal stroke of "Long" is like the mid-river islet, supporting Zhou Jiawen's pear orchard and his decades-long hopes. On Baizhou Islet in Zhijiang, Zhou Jiawen has cultivated sand pears for 30 years. He has also waited 30 years for a bridge. The catastrophic flood of 1998 is a thorn in his heart: "I watched helplessly as fellow villagers, in tears, cut down their pear trees." Over 10,000 tons of pears were stranded due to the shipping ban, and the island's total planting area fell sharply from 100,000 mu. After the Yangtze River Protection initiative began, Baizhou Islet proactively rejected billions of yuan in industrial projects, adhering to its "no-industry island" status. Zhou Jiawen led the formation of a cooperative, self-funded his studies at agricultural schools, introduced new varieties, and transformed ordinary pears into a national geographic indication product sold for 40 yuan each, even reaching international markets. In May 2026, the Zhijiang Yangtze River Bridge will be completed, ending the island's millennia of isolation. "We used to say, 'Baizhou Islet's pears are sweet in the mouth, but bitter on the road.' From now on, the sweetness will be complete." He calculates that the bridge will cut transport costs by 40%, potentially doubling the proportion of premium fruit.

Stroke 3: The Turning Point of "Long"

The vertical-hook turning point of "Long" occurs at Paizhou Bay's large river loop, witnessing Sang Zhongxin's three "bowls of rice" from the Yangtze and his life's transformation. "This is a nature reserve, fishing is illegal." "There are cameras here; it's being recorded." "I suggest you go fishing for leisure outside the reserve." With this "three-sentence persuasion method," 63-year-old Sang Zhongxin of Jiayu County's Paizhou Bay has been a river protection volunteer for a decade. He has eaten three "bowls of rice" from the Yangtze: in the 1990s, he became a "down-to-sea" fisherman, quickly becoming a village "10,000-yuan household"; later, he switched to fish trading, earning an annual income of 100,000 yuan at his peak. He saw the writing on the wall early: "The jobs of fishing and trading fish... I figured we wouldn't be able to do them for much longer." He proactively obtained his engineer's certificate as a backup plan. In 2016, he voluntarily surrendered his fishing boat and gear, becoming one of the first in the area to retire from fishing. He then boarded a patrol boat, transitioning from a "fisherman" to a "river guardian." Now, every day at 6 a.m., Sang Zhongxin appears on the Yangtze River levee at Paizhou Bay, patrolling the riverbank on foot. What gratifies him most is that the finless porpoise, which he once considered "very ordinary" in his youth, is now returning to these waters in large groups.

Stroke 4: The Final Stroke of "Long"

The final closing stroke of "Long" stretches across the open river surface at Xisai Mountain in Huangshi, imprinting the green transformation of a riverside steel plant. At the Daye Special Steel's sintering stockyard, shift leader Chen Xuesong has been at his post for 12 years. When he started, this was an open-air yard right next to the Yangtze: "The river wind would blow, raising dust everywhere. We had to wear masks to work every day. The worst was the rain and snow; piles 11 meters high would collapse, and the mineral powder could bury the track belts." Over the decade of the Yangtze River Protection initiative, the company has invested 3.6 billion yuan in environmental upgrades. The open-air stockyard was converted into a fully enclosed facility, equipped with an eagle-eye linked dust suppression system, and the stacking and reclaiming processes are now largely automated. "The protection of the Yangtze River is also our responsibility and duty. With the raw material yard no longer raising dust and spilling, we are contributing to the river's protection," says Gong Jinhui, the operation director of the yard, echoing Chen's sentiments. The steel's essence hasn't changed, but the sky by the river is bluer, and the wind is cleaner.

Stroke 5: The Water Radical of "Jiang"

The initial three-dot water radical of "Jiang" represents the winding bends of the lower Jingjiang River and also encapsulates Ding Zeliang's 18 years of dedicated care for the finless porpoise. "Tiantian, Mengmeng, Fangfang, time to eat!" At the Shishou Tian'e-Zhou Baiji National Nature Reserve, 59-year-old Ding Zeliang has been calling this phrase for 18 years. A former local fisherman, during the extreme ice and snow disaster in 2008, the river froze, trapping the porpoises: "Watching them struggle in the water made my heart ache." He and the rescue team worked for three days and nights to save 22 porpoises. From that moment, he put down his fishing net and became a full-time keeper. Over 30 work logs are filled with the habits of each porpoise: the elder Tiantian is a picky eater; the calf Mengmeng was fed fish paste by Ding himself, an hour at a time, for half a month until he nursed it back to life. Over 18 years, the reserve's porpoise population has grown from an initial 5 to 101, making it the only area in the Yangtze basin where the population is steadily increasing through ex-situ conservation. "It's always hard watching the porpoises leave," Ding says. But they belong to the Yangtze River. "Seeing more and more of them in the river is the true value of my work."

Stroke 6: The Top Horizontal of "Jiang"

The top horizontal of the "Gong" component in "Jiang" lies across the river surface like Tianxingzhou Islet in Wuhan, witnessing a quiet shift from the roar of engines to the chirping of birds. On the head of Wuhan's Tianxingzhou Islet, Xiang Shengjun looks with satisfaction at the black storks pacing on the sandbar. Known in his circle as "Hook Brother," he is a veteran off-road enthusiast. He was once a regular at this "Wuhan's Alxa" for sand racing, where thousands of off-road vehicles would gather, raising clouds of dust that forced migratory birds to retreat. The change began with a beach cleanup: "I and 8 volunteers picked up trash in the popular racing area. In less than an hour, we collected enough parts to assemble 1.5 off-road vehicles." That day, he also saw the black stork for the first time, exclaiming, "So beautiful." After that, he packed away his car keys and became a "bird nanny": he and his daughter used scrap metal to weld a life-size black stork sculpture, installing it in the "Black Stork Hut" education base. He also inspired his fellow off-roaders to transform into an environmental patrol team. To date, they have conducted over 80 bird protection activities, attracting over 20,000 participants, and the wintering black stork population has grown from a dozen to nearly 60.

Stroke 7: The Vertical Stroke of "Jiang"

The vertical stroke of the "Gong" component in "Jiang" stands firm along the shoreline of Ezhou's Fankou, upholding a decade of ecological accounting. The past ten years at Ezhou's Fankou riverbank represent an "ecological debt" repaid to the Yangtze. This area was once dense with sand and gravel wharfs and enterprises built along the bank. Villagers suffered from floods while also taking from the river, creating a long-term conflict between people and the river. Starting in 2017, Ezhou invested 7.058 billion yuan in a comprehensive renovation, demolishing 88 polluting enterprises, removing all illegal sand stations, planting over 140 species of aquatic plants, and building a 408-meter-wide riverside green corridor. This created three "firsts" for the Yangtze basin: the widest ecological waterfront landscape belt, the first above-ground botanical garden, and the first natural-style fish migration passage. The project also demonstrated remarkable resolve with three "no's" over the decade: three commercial projects totaling 1.7 billion yuan in investment were rejected for crossing the ecological red line. "In the past, enterprises chose the location; now, the location chooses the enterprise," says a local official. There is no room for negotiation when it comes to the red line.

Stroke 8: The Final Stroke of "Jiang"

The final stroke of "Jiang" concludes at the exit river section of Hubei's eastern gateway, securing the ultimate promise of clear water flowing eastward. At the wastewater treatment plant in Xiaochi Town, Huangmei County, chemist Wu Lingmin monitors the water quality data every day, controlling the last checkpoint on the Hubei section of the Yangtze. As the final stop for the river in Hubei, this is the very place where the ancient idiom "not to cross the Leichi boundary" originated. A decade ago, Xiaochi didn't have a single sewage treatment plant, and wastewater was discharged directly into the Yangtze. After the river protection initiative began, the local government shut down chemical plants, demolished 13 private wharfs, laid over 60 kilometers of sewage pipes, and brought three large-scale treatment plants into operation. Plant director Sun Fengliang often describes the process as "dark soy sauce in, mineral water out." In Wu Lingmin's view, the thousand-year-old "Leichi" was a military boundary; today's "Leichi" is an insurmountable ecological red line. Guarding every set of data is the promise to guard Hubei's eastern gateway. Over the past decade, the water quality of the Yangtze's main stream in Hubei has remained stable at Class II for many consecutive years. Scenes of "clear water, green banks, leaping fish, and flying birds" are now a common sight. The strokes pieced together are not just the characters for "Yangtze River," but the flourishing, green future of the Jingchu land.