Hundreds of mourners gathered at Shijitan Hospital in Beijing on Tuesday for the burial service of environmental pioneer Liang Congjie.

Mourners remember Liang Congjie at his funeral. [China Daily] ?

Friends, family and former classmates shared their grief as they stood in line to catch a last glimpse of Liang, whose position as president and founder of Friends of Nature, the nation's first environmental NGO, gave him a prominent role in the country's environmental protection.

Liang was born into a well-known family. His father, Liang Sicheng, was a revered architect and his mother, Lin Huiyin, was both an architect and a writer.

Liang passed away at the age of 78 on Oct 28 from an internal organ failure following a long illness, according to the Beijing News.

"He had such an impact on everyone in the organization," said Liang Xiaomei, the communications officer with Friends of Nature.

Liang's last request for a simple ceremony was met, with mourners filing into the small farewell room to lay more than 100 white and yellow carnations next to his open casket.

"It's been a hard day for everyone," Liang Xiaomei said.

His wife, son and daughter and other close relatives held hands and sang as Liang's body was placed in a white van and taken to Babaoshan Cemetery where a memorial will be dedicated in his honor.

Friends and family, many in tears, followed the van yelling "Go well" as the vehicle left the hospital parking lot.

Liang started Friends of Nature in 1994 after leaving his job with a State-owned publishing company.

After founding the NGO, he went on to play a major role in preserving endangered Tibetan antelopes and successfully protested the building of two dams on the Nujiang River. He said the dams would have had a devastating effect on local wildlife.

Friends of Nature is now one of the major supporting NGOs for environmental work in China.

Carissa Welton, founder of the Greening the Beige project in Beijing, which works closely with Friends of Nature, said without the help of big NGOs such as Friends of Nature, smaller projects would be hard to achieve their aims.

"If someone has a project related to sustainability, organizations like Friends of Nature are probably one of the first places people go," she said.

People who did not know him but who admired his accomplishments were also among their number.

"Almost any Chinese person that reads the news has heard of Liang Congjie," said Antonia Finnane, a historical studies professor at the University of Melbourne who has studied China's history since the 1970s.

The official farewell ceremony from Friends of Nature will be held on Dec 5 at the Liang Congjie Memorial in Babaoshan Cemetery.

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