CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Monday, October 29, 2018 CHINA 7 Photographer focuses on Great Wall passion

Untrained villager went from snapping tourists to winning national prizes in just a few years

By ZHANG YU in Chengde, Hebei [email protected]

Few people are as familiar with the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall as Zhou Wan­ ping. For 33 years, not only has he manned a stall there selling snacks and souvenirs but he has also taken countless pho­ tographs of the scenic spot, some of which have earned him national acclaim. Zhou’s village home in Chengde, Hebei province, is about 30 minutes’ walk from the world­famous Jinshan­ ling section, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368­ 1644). The 53­year­old started his stall in 1985 and began snap­ ping pictures as a way of mak­ ing extra money. “Tourists were always ask­ ing me to take photos of them after they’d shopped at my stall,” he said, adding that he decided to save his money to buy a secondhand camera. “I’d take a picture of tourists with the Great Wall and mail it to them once it’d been devel­ oped. I charged less than 1 yuan (14 cents) a picture.” Yet instead of filling his pockets, the activity stoked his interest in photography. Soon, he was taking pictures of the ancient wall every day, from The Jinshanling section of the Great Wall in Chengde, Hebei province, is scarfed by morning fog after rain. ZHOU WANPING / FOR CHINA DAILY different spots and at different angles. “My family and neighbors who has only a middle school family to follow his passion. country’s photography circle. said I was just playing around education. Using the prize money, he Professional photographers to escape from work, that it Most of his pictures were bought brand­new photogra­ now visit his home to ask for wasn’t proper for a grown­up,” ordinary, he said, but whenev­ phy equipment and focused tips on shooting the Great Zhou recalled. You never know er he found one that stood his lens on his favorite subject Wall. But he did not give up, and out, he would write down the — Jinshanling. While summer is the peak sometimes he would camp out what breathtaking settings he had used, such as “Nature gives the Great Wall season for tourists, fall is when beside the wall for days just to the shutter speed. Using this different scenery every day, most photographers head to capture the scenery in the and beautiful technique, he honed his own and you never know what Jinshanling section, he said. right lighting and get that style. breathtaking and beautiful “I’m proud more photogra­ “perfect shot”. moment you will In 1988, one of his Great moment you will capture,” he phers are coming and getting “I had no technical knowl­ capture.” Wall pictures won first prize at said. to know the beauty of the Jin­ edge about photography at the the 17th National Photogra­ Zhou’s pictures continued shanling Great Wall,” he add­ time. I just pressed the shutter Zhou Wanping, photographer phy Art Exhibition. to win prizes, including the ed. “As a villager, I’m keen to release when I thought it was from Chengde, Hebei province The honor won Zhou the China Photography Award, give them some ideas from the the right moment,” said Zhou, support he needed from his the highest honor among the local perspective.”

SPIRIT OF ACTION Millennial returns home to market Inner Mongolian lamb

By WANG XIAOYU during her time at LG. Self­disciplined as Guo is, [email protected] “The meat quality is abso­ she had anxious moments lutely great, as the cold weath­ when she worried about lag­ College­educated, well­trav­ er tightens the texture and ging behind fellow entrepre­ eled and with a white­collar there’s plenty of alkaline vege­ neurs in metropolises like job in a global corporation, tation to feed them well,” she Beijing and Shanghai, imped­ Guo Qi was the epitome of a said. “But batches of raw lamb ing her confidence and moti­ cosmopolitan Chinese millen­ are sold to large catering cor­ vation. She said the spirit of nial until she returned to the porations outside Inner Mon­ entrepreneurship is still a nov­ vast prairies of the Inner Mon­ golia at cheap prices, leading elty in pastoral Yakeshi. golia autonomous region two to a narrow profit margin for “Honestly, Inner Mongolia years ago. local herders.” is still a relatively barren land She made the move after She concluded that the key for startups,” she said, adding Forests cover once­barren mountains in the Xihaigu area of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. quitting her quality assurance to promoting her hometown that one needs to be extremely WANG PENG / XINHUA job at South Korean manufac­ lamb is to rebrand products self­driven to keep up with a turer LG Electronics to apply from the initial stage of pro­ fast­evolving market when liv­ for a place in a master’s degree duction and reprocessing to ing in such a serene place. program in the United King­ increase the added value. “It’s natural to feel gloomy dom. Guo quickly struck up a deal or upset during my work due Forest flourishes after She returned to Yakeshi in with a few local partners, and to a sense of disconnection Hulunbuir, her hometown in together they aimed to tap from my peers in bigger cities,” the northeast of Inner Mongo­ into the existing market for Guo said. “I tell myself repeat­ lia, in early 2016, intent on ready­to­eat, roasted lamb edly that my priority is to step villagers are relocated focusing on her application. with a tea aroma. forward bit by bit, no matter “I stumbled across an It’s natural to feel “It’s a traditional delicacy how small one step is.” e­commerce panel discussion from my mom’s cookbook,” When asked if she might Shao Dongsheng, a ranger labeled the “most unfit place cated from the Xihaigu area. in the city center, where online gloomy or upset she said. “I had to implore her regret postponing, if not aban­ in the Ningxia Hui autono­ for human settlement” by the “As people migrated, we retail experts shared how to to give me the recipe. In Chi­ doning, her original plan to mous region, still remembers United Nations in the 1970s planted trees and grass on the launch digital businesses in during my work nese cooking, we rarely follow study abroad, Guo said she the fear he felt the first time he due to land reclamation, hills, and enclosed it for natu­ rural areas,” the 26­year­old due to a sense of the exact amount of ingredi­ was proud to be part of a small encountered a leopard. drought and a fragile environ­ ral afforestation,” Shao said. said. “The talk got me thinking ents and seasonings.” group of young people who are “It was on the hillside only ment. Most of the villagers’ houses about my homeland.” disconnection Because of her work in qual­ contributing to Inner Mongo­ 30 meters away. I stood still “We planted trees each year have been torn down, with Inner Mongolia, with its ity control, Guo knew mass lia's development. because I was too afraid to but still saw no forest,” said only a few remaining in an vast, lush grassland, produced from my peers in production is different from “Only a small number of col­ move. It looked at me, turned, Wei Dianlong, 72, head of the area now covered by trees. about 1 million metric tons of casual home cooking. lege­educated young adults and left,” he said. local forestry station. Emigration from Longde lamb in 2016, more than a fifth bigger cities.” “We need an accurate recipe born in Hulunbuir are willing Such encounters are not Wei said the villagers cut has helped free up 17,700 hec­ of China’s total production, to ensure consistency in flavor. to come back here,” she said. uncommon for Shao and his down trees in the fall to use for tares of land, with around according to the National Guo Qi, founder of Inner What impressed me about my “Even fewer will wade into the fellow rangers in the moun­ heating during the winter. 6,667 hectares designated for Bureau of Statistics. Mongolia Qi Sheng Trading previous on­site visits to South livestock industry after seeing tains of Longde county. Leop­ They also herded their cattle growing forests. Forest cover­ But Guo said the tasty lamb Korean and Japanese factories the glamorous side of big cit­ ards, wolves and deer are and sheep on the hills, eating age in the former villages has from Hulunbuir was not was their standard procedures ies. There is no right or wrong often seen roaming the hill­ all the grass. “As rangers, we risen from 42 percent to 87 famous enough. and strict monitoring of quali­ choice. I hope more Inner Mon­ sides. didn’t have to prevent forest percent. “People usually associate while neighboring Hulunbuir, ty,” she said, adding that her golia natives will divert their “As villagers moved away, fires,” Wei said, “because there On a winding path in Shan­ Inner Mongolian lamb with with an even larger area, pro­ team also researched target attention to our hometown. trees and grass flourished, simply was no forest.” he, hoofprints — some big, that from Xiliin Gol League,” duced just 10 percent of that markets in Shanghai and “I chose the road less trav­ and more animals emerged In 2013, the regional gov­ some small — are imprinted she said. “They are not aware figure. Jiangsu province. eled, and I feel lucky and grate­ from the deep forests,” Shao ernment launched a pro­ in the dirt. “It’s the trail of a that lamb products from Hul­ The alarming gap in volume After months of research­ ful to have walked into that said. gram to relocate the villagers boar and her baby,” Shao said. unbuir are equally delicious.” prompted her to spend several ing, brainstorming and nego­ panel discussion room and Shanhe, with around 6,000 to places with better infra­ “It shows the environment is Guo learned online that Xil­ weeks visiting herders, mak­ tiations, Inner Mongolia Qi met those e­commerce residents, is located in the structure. In the past three getting better.” iin Gol League breeds more ing use of the business intelli­ Sheng Trading was set up in experts. And that has made all Xihaigu area, a predominant­ decades, more than 1.2 mil­ than 20 million sheep a year, gence she had absorbed Hulunbuir in July 2016. the difference.” ly mountainous region lion people have been relo­ XINHUA