Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspects the estuary of the Yellow River in the city of Dongying, East China's Shandong province, Oct 20, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

Crouching in the cool of the quiet wetlands, Yang Bin patiently awaits his prey. His intentions are peaceful: All the shooting he's done for the past 20 years has involved a camera.

Yang wants to welcome the elegant annual guests he has photographed in the past－migratory waterfowl, such as Oriental storks, which come in large groups to dance in the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Dongying, Shandong province. The reserve provides a feast for the eyes as well as food for the birds.

A few days ago, 48-year-old Yang, a native of Dongying, observed some of the storks, along with red-crowned cranes and some other birds. They were the first to arrive.

"It's like an annual greeting. I wait for them and record their life here," he said, adding that the birds come because the living environment in the reserve is better than other places.

"From the middle of November to March the next year, the reserve will be home to countless birds. It's very common to see thousands of them in one photo," Yang said.

The nature reserve, situated where the Yellow River flows into the Bohai Sea, was established in 1992. It covers about 153,000 hectares, with the wetland making up 70 percent of the total, according to the reserve's management committee.

It is an important stop for millions of migratory birds on their global journey. Last year, attracted by the quality ecological environment, more than 6 million migratory birds stopped at the reserve－three birds for every one of the 2 million human residents of the city.

President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspected the estuary of the Yellow River in Dongying, including the nature reserve, on Wednesday.

He checked the river's waterways and the ecological environment of the wetlands in the river delta, and learned about the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin.

An outline for the basin's protection and development through 2030, which was released in early October by the central government, calls for protection and restoration of wetlands at the lower reaches of the Yellow River Delta.