Rachel Hou/Shanghai Daily news

A report submitted by local students to the municipal government on pollution control along the Huangpu River has been answered in a letter from Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng.

In his letter to the students, Mayor Han encouraged them to continue to participate in environmental protection work and to contribute to the city's efforts to achieve sustainable development.

Starting in 2001, members of the environmental science group at Shanghai Yan'an Middle School began to conduct research and do quantitative analysis along the Huangpu River, travelling a distance of over 300 kilometers from its headwaters in Longwang Mountain in Anji County to Songpu Bridge in Songjiang District in the city's southwest. They wrote several reports setting out their findings.

Qiu Yong, Dong Liang, Zan Xuqing and 75 other members of the group sent the letter, together with a textbook written by the school's teachers on how to protect the Huangpu River.

I've conducted various researches over the past six years—from water sample collection to data analysis—each of which was a valuable experience in scientific exploration, said group member Dong Liang.