Wonder Wall
It is one of the most famous structures on Earth, but when it is viewed through photographer Yang Dong’s lens people can actually see the true beauty of China’s most iconic monument, Li Yingxue reports.
When a heavy downpour hit Beijing one afternoon in May, for many the instinctive thing to do was to rush for cover. For photographer Yang Dong, however, his first thought was to grab his camera. The next morning, Yang got up at 2:30 am and drove to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Arriving at the foot of the mountain an hour and a half later, Yang started to climb with all his photography equipment. Before sunrise, Yang had already set up his camera, hoping to capture a specific moment when the Great Wall would be partly hidden in the clouds. With a click — and a great deal of patience — he got what he came for.
“After heavy rain or snow, the next morning is the best time to find a sea of clouds around the Great Wall,” Yang says in a phone interview with China Daily.
The 28-year-old became popular on social media platform Sina Weibo sharing the stories behind his photographs of the Great Wall (of which he has 300,000) over the past five years, with his anecdotes being viewed more than 150 million times.
One internet user, with the handle Tuzi897, comments: “Only repeatedly measuring the Great Wall step by step can he know which angle is the most beautiful.”
He is known as the Great Wall photographer, and his story is well-known among the monument’s enthusiasts. So much so, he was invited to play a lead role in the documentary Loving the Great Wall released in January, and was also the spokesman for the 2019 China Great Wall International Foto Week.
In February, Yang was invited to participate, together with celebrity guests, in the second episode of variety show The Great Wall, which introduces knowledge about the monument in an entertaining way. As part of the show, Yang taught the guests how to take a good photo of the ancient structure.
Actor Yang Di, said during the episode that, when he saw Yang Dong’s photos, all he could say was “wow” and that he didn’t know the Great Wall could look like that.
Yang Dong’s love affair with the camera began when he received one as a gift from his parents. In 2011, although he majored in accounting when he enrolled in Yangtze University in Jingzhou, Hubei province, he never stopped engaging in his passion for travel and photography.
While in college, he would spend almost every weekend and vacation traveling to the many scenic spots around Jingzhou and across the country.
“I’m an introvert, but since I’ve had a camera, it has helped me to communicate with the world,” he says.
After graduation in 2014, Yang Dong and a friend spent six weeks backpacking through the Tibet autonomous region, before he moved to Beijing and started a photography course at the Beijing Film Academy.
His tutor Xiao Dianchang said in a documentary about Yang Dong that he was a diligent student with a strong ability to comprehend. “The aspect of a successful photographer was to find a specialty, and I thought he was good at landscape photography,” Xiao said. After a month’s study, Xiao told Yang Dong that there was no need for him to continue the course and that he should go out to practice his photography.
Xiao encouraged Yang Dong to continue pursuing landscape photography. The bigger picture for Yang Dong soon came into focus — the Great Wall.
Pride and pleasure
In the summer of 2015, Yang Dong visited the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall in Hebei province. It was the first time he took photos of the Great Wall and it brought him a first prize.
“I was so excited that I didn’t sleep all that night. Since then, I’ve won more than 100 prizes with my photos of the Great Wall.”
To capture the photo of the Jinshanling section in the clouds, Yang Dong made two dozen visits before he finally got a picture that satisfied him.
Once, he waited for five full days to get the shot, while most of the other snappers had left by the second night. “Only three photographers stayed after the rain on the fourth night, and I insisted on waiting until I finally got the shot,” he recalls.
“Some people say I get the prize-winning photos because of luck. Yes, but that luck comes from the effort of holding on a little longer,” he says.
In May 2016, when Yang Dong was photographing at Jinshanling, he noticed the pattern of the moving clouds resembled smoke, as if from a beacon fire during some long-forgotten war.
“The scene transported me to an ancient battlefield, and I immediately started running to find the best angle of the clouds and the beacon tower to capture that moment,” he recalls.
However, the excitement of winning prizes has gradually waned, but Yang Dong has found a new, more lasting motivation — to present the beauty of the Great Wall to the world.
It dawned on him while reading a comment from a follower that says: “I admire a young guy named Yang Dong. No matter how his photos look, his diligent effort to record one of the greatest manmade structures on Earth enables some people to rediscover the Great Wall and draw their attention to the need for its protection.”
“The Great Wall is about the nature, as well as the architecture. There is a spirit of the Great Wall and my love for that is presented in my photos,” Yang Dong says. After learning more about the Great Wall and communicating with specialists who devoted themselves to studying and protecting the ancient edifice, he says he now has a better understanding of it. “The Great Wall has given me spiritual sustenance, knowledge and willpower.”
The road less trodden
The Great Wall under the Milky Way is also in his portfolio. Each year from March to June part of the Milky Way is clearly visible, and Yang Dong patiently waits until it moves to the right place in the night sky — above the watchtower on top of the mountain — then presses the shutter.
“Night on the Great Wall is often so dark that I can’t see my fingers,” Yang Dong says, adding that he usually sleeps in a tent inside one of the watchtowers.
He says he is either at the Great Wall taking photos or on the way to it. The tough climb to and from the wall never stops him.
“When I’m climbing, I feel like all my energy has run out, but once I’ve reached my destination, I feel like I’m fully charged,” he says.
He also walks hand in hand with danger and loneliness — he has witnessed lightning flashing just 5 meters in front of him, been scratched many times by the thorns of wild jujube trees and had some close encounters with some of the creatures, such as boars, that roam the wilder parts of the wall.
In December 2018, when he heard that the Jiayuguan section of the Great Wall may see snow, he traveled 22 hours from Beijing by train to get there.
The temperature was -28 C, and the cold winter only left him one chance to launch his drone before sunset to capture the Great Wall covered in snow. However it was so cold that the device which controls the drone suddenly stopped working. Yang Dong opened his winter jacket to tuck the device inside to try and warm it up again.
The sudden exposure to the cold numbed his whole upper body and the hand that held the tablet. He fumbled with frozen fingers to get the tablet up and running and finally got the shot he wanted — the whole place covered in snow — but at a small cost, as the next day when he got up, his finger was badly swollen with mild frostbite.
He hatched a plan last year to take a series photos of the 13 passes of the Great Wall under snow. With five done, he hopes to finish the project in three years. Like all the journeys he’s embarked upon, he’s on course to finish it.