Wolf documentary reveals China’s commitment to biodiversity, wetland protection

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has stressed that the environment concerns the well-being of people in all countries. During his inspections, Xi has always paid great attention to ecosystems, spanning from cities to rural areas, and from enterprises to communities.

Under the guidance of Xi's 'Thought on Ecological Civilisation', China has been advancing the green transition of its economy over the last decade.

Regions across the country are actively promoting the construction of ecological civilisation and advancing Chinese modernisation featuring harmony between humanity and nature. These efforts are creating a 'Beautiful China'.

In recent months, a documentary released in 2017, 'Return to the Wolves', has seen a surge of renewed attention years after its release, bringing wolves – a species native to the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau – back into the public eye.

The story captured on film is frozen in the specific era around 2010, preserving a fragment of memory about the Ruoergai grasslands on the fringe of the plateau.

The documentary tells the story of how, in 2010, Li Weiyi, a wildlife painter, rescued a wolf cub on the Ruoergai grasslands in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

She took the cub home, named it Gelin, and raised it for three months. She later brought Gelin back to the grassland and spent seven months helping it return to a wild wolf pack.

Li and director Yi Feng documented their 10 months with Gelin on camera, producing the documentary. After the film's release, Li continued to follow the fate of wild wolves. In 2020, she was reunited with Gelin on the grassland. The two gazed at each other for a long time, and Li discovered that Gelin had also grown old, according to a report by The Paper.

Nearly a decade later, film commentary videos on short-video platforms have revisited Gelin's story, bringing this fairy-tale-like memory back into the public eye. On Douyin, the most influential commentary video has garnered more than 9.9 million likes, while on Rednote, related topics have accumulated over 330 million views.

Return to life

However, beyond the camera lens, this high-altitude wetland, located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, has not remained at the point in time when the story unfolded.

Over the past decade or so, in response to real challenges such as grassland degradation, wetland shrinkage and biodiversity protection, local forestry and grassland authorities, along with reserve management institutions, have continued to advance systematic ecological restoration and long-term conservation. One concrete and meticulous task after another has been carried out across the open wilderness.

Today, as people once again talk about "wolves," what truly deserves to be told about Ruoergai is not just the animal itself, but the quiet ecological changes that have taken place over the years, and the continuously functioning governance practices that support the return of life.

Safeguarding China's wetlands

The Ruoergai wetlands are one of the world's largest and best-preserved alpine peat swamp wetlands. It also serves as a vital water recharge area for the upper reaches of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.

According to the report of People's Daily, during both dry and wet seasons, the wetlands contribute about 40% and more than 20%, respectively, of the Yellow River's water supply. It is known as the river's "reservoir" and a globally rare "solid plateau reservoir".

Because of its unique ecological role and irreplaceable value, the Ruoergai wetlands have been listed as wetlands of international importance and identified as a key area in the development of China's national park system.

In recent years, China has made progress in wetlands conservation.

In November 2022, China unveiled new ambitions for wetlands conservation during the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14), held in Wuhan and Switzerland's Geneva. Addressing the opening ceremony via video, Xi said China would promote high-quality development in the wetlands conservation cause, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Calling for scaling up global action on wetlands conservation, Xi said: "It is important that we advance the global process of wetlands conservation, redouble efforts to preserve authenticity and integrity, include more important wetlands in nature reserves, improve cooperation mechanisms and platforms, and increase the coverage of wetlands of international importance."

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, during the 14th five-year plan period (2021-25), China has advanced comprehensive efforts to protect and restore wetland ecosystems, launching over 1 000 wetland conservation projects and scientifically restoring 4.34 million mu of wetlands. As of now, the country's total wetland area has reached 834 million mu, securing the ecological safety baseline for wetlands, CCTV reported in December 2025.

Source: Global Times (Excerpt)