As recently as the 1950s, there were as many as 500 cormorant fishermen working on the Li River, but now only a handful remain, mainly to stage shows for visitors.

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Around 100, 000 people have used Paper.li since Swiss-start-up Small River launched it last spring, and around 1, 000 papers are being created each day.

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Mr. Li, the Lanzhou environmental official, claims rotting corpses have not affected the water quality of the Yellow River, but his assertions do not ring true.

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