[Photo provided to China Daily]

When an American threw out a challenge to a Chinese icon, the temptation to try to beat him was too much for many.

They had been united in a common goal 30 years earlier, and in trying to achieve it 11 of their friends, peers and rivals had lost their lives. Now, as they met for a reunion, drink and tears flowed.

"During the party in Beijing all of us drank late into the night, and we laughed and wept," says Chu Siming, 59, a member of the China-US Upper Yangtze River expedition of 1986.

That mission had called for a journey of about 2,500 kilometers lasting 10 weeks on rafts and kayaks through virtually uncharted waters that would entail negotiating swirling torrents, dozens of waterfalls and drops totaling more than 5,000 meters.

This was no scatterbrained attempt by a group of individuals to get themselves into Guinness World Records but an effort that had the approval of the top sports authorities in China. Yet two strong undercurrents propelled the expedition from the start: national hubris and money.

In 1985, Ken Warren, an adventurer from Oregon, had declared that he and a team would attempt to be the first to raft the perilous upper reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest river. This had raised hackles from the public, who questioned why foreigners had been handed the right to be the first conquerors of a body of water that by dint of its history and culture enjoys almost mystical national status.

Earlier the China Sports Service Company, an affiliate of the national sports authority, had signed a $800,000 deal with Warren allowing him to raft on the upper reaches of the Yangtze and later to develop commercial rafting.

"In the 1980s, China had just opened its economy to the outside world and many government departments were seeking projects to earn profits," says Chu, who was an employee at the China Sports Service Company, affiliated to the sports authority.