Social media celebrity in china
Glacier activist falls into ice water while shooting a video – rescuers have little hope
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Wang Xiangjun became famous for videos of glaciers in China. Last year he was even allowed to report on his experiences at the UN climate conference. Now the 30-year-old has apparently died in an accident on a glacier.
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A 30-year-old Chinese climate activist apparently died in an accident in front of the camera. Wang Xiangjun became famous for his viral videos on glaciers and the effects of climate change on them, especially in China.
On December 20, according to several media reports, he fell into the ice water on a glacier on an excursion in Tibet and has been missing since then. Rescuers would have tried in vain to find him. “He could have gotten under an ice floe. The water is ten to 20 meters deep there,” a helper is quoted in the Chinese “Global Times”. That he survived was “almost impossible”.
According to the British BBC, a video circulating on Chinese platforms shows the tragic incident. In it, Wang loses his balance while climbing near a glacier waterfall and slides into fast-flowing ice water.
According to the reports, the rescue measures had to be stopped for the time being because the ice cover there was too thick at this time of the year. In order to recover the young man’s body, one would first have to wait until the ice floes continue to melt.
Wang Xiangjun and the love for the glaciers
The Chinese was born in 1990 in poor conditions and later moved through the country as a migrant worker. In doing so, he discovered his preference for snow-capped mountains and glaciers. The videos of his inspections and explorations of tunnels quickly achieved millions of clicks, and his channel on the Douyin short video platform has more than three million followers.
