Digging hard for clues to the past

In 2002, Mei followed Wuhan University's archaeology team to Badong county, Hubei province. There they discovered and excavated the Jiuxianping Ruins of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) by the Yangtze River.

In 2003, he became a field technician at the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. In 2007, his wife, Yi Xiaoling, was also hired by the institute. In 2013, Mei joined the Changxing Taihu Museum.

It is a job that is both physically and mentally challenging. After a painstaking dig, it is amazing to see how a fragment of bone, a piece of clay or an ancient coin unearthed can bring out the item's history, Mei says.

Besides the digs and assisting with fieldwork, Mei does some dayto-day activities, such as photography and sketching of relics, mapping of sites and searching for resources.