Leafing through

"The classification of the medicinal plants on Changbai Mountain was not detailed or accurate. Also, many pictures of the plants were hand-drawn," Zhou says, recalling that he decided to visit the mountain and take photos of the plants and their environment to fill in the missing parts.

Zhou has visited the mountain area more than 160 times. He not only knows how to get to the top of the mountain from any direction but can also tell the name of any plant there. In 2016, Zhou published a book about the plant resources on the mountain.

At the age of 50, Zhou started to explore beyond Changbai Mountain in the country's vast northeastern area. To him, collecting information on the plants with data and words was not enough, the plants needed to be recorded with detailed photos.

Zhou says he lives in a "lucky era" in which he can record with his lens.

"The ancient people could only draw the plants, and in the future, some of the plants may not exist anymore, so I feel the responsibility to record them for future generations," Zhou says.

Taking photos of plants means using proper light so that the features and details of a plant can be clearly seen. For his books, Zhou often took many photos of one plant and selected the best. He took photos from different angles of plants and recorded the growth stages. "I also tried to take photos of all colors of one plant," he says.