Aerial photo taken on March 18, 2019 shows an eco-park on Jiangxinzhou islet of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Li Bo)

"It was on Jan. 1, 2014, when I saw over 40 finless porpoises jumping above the surface of Poyang Lake," she recalled. Poyang Lake is China's largest freshwater lake in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

"The scene was very spectacular. This is the first time I've seen a real finless porpoise," said Jiang. Since then, she has been determined to protect the rare species.

Since 2016, protecting the environment of the Yangtze, rather than large-scale development, has become the focus of the country's river development plans. The rallying call was heard as authorities across China carried out a series of measures, including preventing water pollution, restricting ship movement and patrolling the nature reserves.

Scientific research by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2017 showed that there were 1,012 wild finless porpoises in China, of which 445 were in the main stream of the Yangtze River and 457 live in Poyang Lake.

In addition to its strategic status in environmental protection, the Yangtze River also flows through many economically developed provinces and municipalities, making the region's sustainable and green development key to further driving China's economic growth.

China in 2019 unveiled an action plan to protect and restore the Yangtze River with goals including eliminating more than 90 percent of "black and odorous" water bodies in cities at or above the prefectural level in the Yangtze River Economic Belt by the end of 2020.

In April this year, the country released a guideline on improving the sewage treatment charging mechanism to promote green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The move aims to use price leverage to improve the prevention and control of water pollution in the Yangtze River, according to the guideline.