The Sanjiangyuan region of the Qinghai–Tibet plateau contains the headwaters of three of Asia’s major rivers: the Yangtze, the Mekong (also known as the Lancang) and the Yellow River. This delicate corner of western China is known as the country’s “water tower”. But, against the background of economic development and climate change, its high grasslands are quietly changing.
For many years, Hashi Tashidorjee of local NGO the Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association has been documenting in photographs these changes and their impacts on the lives of local herders. Here, he talks chinadialogue’s Zhou Wei through a series of the pictures he has taken, and the stories behind them.