Racing to capture ancient sites

Parental influence

Rong, 40, is a Beijing native from an academic family. His father is a retired professor at Beijing Jiaotong University. His mother, Zhong Jia, was a senior reporter and editor at a major media outlet.

Both parents loved geography and took him to many places as a child. His mother, one of the country's pioneering bird-watchers, has long sought to visit as many nature reserves as possible to observe birds. Although she did not turn her son into a bird-watcher, she instilled in him a deep love of geography and the wilderness.

"They took me to visit some remote sections of the Great Wall in Beijing, and my mother took me to many of the country's nature reserves," Rong said. "Since childhood, my biggest hobby has been reading maps."

That hobby never faded. He moved from paper maps to mapping software and 3D terrain maps. Before visiting a site, he usually has a rough idea of whether it sits near mountains, forests or villages. When taking road trips to unfamiliar places, he almost never asks for directions, yet he always manages to reach his destination accurately.

He also credits his passion for drone photography to his love of maps. "Drone photography offers me a unique perspective on the world, much like the experience I have when studying maps," he said.

He studied history at Nanjing University and began visiting historical sites in his spare time. Early trips with college classmates took him to Shanxi, where he initially had little interest in wooden architecture. Gradually, he wanted to see all kinds of relics.

"Anything with a sense of age, history and the passage of time, I will go to have a look," he said.

After university, he worked for Huaxia Geography, the Chinese-language edition of National Geographic. The magazine had a profound influence on him. Immersed in National Geographic photos, he gained a deeper understanding of the importance of photographic documentation.

In 2017, encouraged by a former colleague, he bought his first drone. After leaving the magazine, he worked for a European cruise company until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since resigning, he has worked as a freelancer.

At the end of 2020, he began posting his drone photographs on social media. He has attracted about 264,000 followers on Sina Weibo, 9,200 on Xiaohongshu and more than 2,000 on Douyin.

He has made no special effort to gain followers, he said, nor does he earn much from social media. He occasionally supplies photographs to magazines, but that does not bring in much income.