Nov.1, 2023
Now a Pulitzer finalist!
An investigative story on how China’s richest man built his business empire Nongfu Spring by bottling water from the country’s most ecologically important mountains, lakes, and rivers, bringing himself massive fortune as well as resistance and lawsuits from impacted communities.
We flew to southern China to talk to tea farmers who blamed Nongfu for exacerbating the extreme drought that almost killed their plantations, and fishermen who are concerned of companies taking water from the lake they depend on even when there wasn‘t enough.
“This is a monopoly of water,” a villager told us. “How come water resources have become their tool for getting rich?”
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NOTE: To find credientials for me and my China-based colleagues at Bloomberg, please scroll down to the bottom of the story.
July 7, 2023
China’s scientists are trying to shield meting glaciers from the sun, and I hiked with them to the 4,800-meter mountain on the Tibetan Plateau to figure out how.
Feb. 17, 2023
After a thousand years, a buddhist temple get power for the first time thanks to solar. I shared a meal with its residents - two monks and one cat - after 4 hours of hike.
Feb. 15, 2023
How to power a plane with leftover Sichuan hotpot? We tracked down hotpot waste’s path from a restaurant’s back-kitchen to industrial oil tanks.
Jan. 22, 2021
The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing was the first one to rely completely on artificial snow, and we drove to the ski venues to see how that’s impacted surrounding communities.
Mar. 28, 2023
One in five solar panels installed worldwide were mounted on a Chinese roof, and we took a train to Xi’an to see a farmer who hopes to retire by selling solar power to the grid.
Aug. 24, 2022
Southern China saw the most severe drought in 60 years, and we flew down to the Yangtze River and talked to retiree swimmers who witnessed the water level’s retreat for decades.
