The Sino-US joint team on the upper reaches of the Yangtze in 1986. .[Photo provided by Jan Warren to China Daily]

In an apparent attempt to assuage public criticism, it was later announced that several Chinese rafters had been selected to join the US team. That recruitment drive had encountered difficulties of its own, many of those who were approached rejecting the opportunity, believing the mission to be too dangerous.

Chu was among those who were not deterred.

"I signed up anyway," he says. "I was young and willing to do anything new and exciting."

Apart from Chu, the company managed to find another two Chinese members for the 11-man joint team. One was a mountaineer from Sichuan and the other was from a sports school in Wuhan, Hubei province. With the team would also be photographer, camera crew and a doctor, as well as a support group that would be traveling by road that included Warren's wife Jan.

However, it became clear that the US-China expedition would not be alone in its attempt, with Chinese teams being formed, their aim being to beat it. News of the joint expedition garnered much interest in both countries, and in China many young people prepared to organize their own expeditions.

The most notable of these was Yao Maoshu, 32, a rafting enthusiast from Sichuan province. He started his venture by himself, which some regarded as foolhardy, in June 1985. It has been reported that before he set out he told his wife to get an abortion because he feared that should he not return she would become a widow burdened with a child.

After 1,300 kilometers he drowned when his raft overturned in the Jinshajiang section of the Yangtze, and some would hail him as a national hero.

Apparently emboldened by this tale of heroism, the next year many young Chinese men joined in competition to raft the Yangtze, and like Yao nine perished in the waters of the Jinshajiang stretch of the river.