INSPECTORS GO WITH THE FLOW IN RIVER MONITORING CAMPAIGN

Teams have been assessing water quality in 70 cities nationwide. Hou Liqiang reports from Yulin, Shaanxi.

The sun was strong. The wind was soft. The air was clean. The sky was blue and cloudless. The weather forecast said we could expect a maximum temperature of about 30 C, but if we stood in the sun it felt like it was raining fire.

Welcome to summer in Yulin, Shaanxi province, on the border of the Loess Plateau and the Ordos Desert, also known as the Mu Us Desert, in North China.