By Wang Ke and Yan Xiaoqing
China.org.cn Multimedia Team

The Sanjiangyuan region is located in the middle of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, it supplies 60 billion cubic meters of water for the lower regions each year and is dubbed the "water tower of China."

The photo exhibition "Water and Life – Sanjiangyuan through the Lens of Global Photographers" opened to the public at the Nationality Culture Palace Museum in Beijing on April 30, 2009.

The three-day photo show, with the theme "Protect Our Water, Protect Our Lives," is sponsored by the Qinghai Provincial Government, Beijing Photographers Association and Uni-President Enterprises Corporation from Taiwan Province. Over 300 guests and diplomats attended the opening ceremony on Thursday.

Mr. Nagy Gabor, cultural counselor of the Republic of Hungary Embassy in Beijing, highly praised the beautiful photos.

"I'm very happy to be here. The landscapes in China's Qinghai Province are so impressive and surprising. It's a fantastic place for people to go," Gabor said, adding, "I really should go there to see its snowy mountains, blue lakes and green grassland."

Gabor called Sanjiangyuan the mother of China because the region, meaning the "source of three rivers" in the Chinese language, is a place where China's two longest rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, and a transnational river, the Lancang River, all sprout.