Perilous journeys

While spending countless hours behind the wheel and numerous days in the wilderness, Zhou has encountered a multitude of dangers over the years.

While driving along a long-abandoned road in a mountainous area in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, he narrowly escaped a landslide.

During a plant survey with a team of five botanists in a township in Nang county, Xizang autonomous region, their car got stuck in an alpine meadow more than 3,000 meters above sea level.

Zhou and one member of the team lost contact with the other three and had to walk for hours in the mountains.

"It was raining and freezing," he recalled. "The loss of temperature put us in danger."

Fortunately, the other team members managed to dislodge the car and find Zhou and his companion in the darkness.

He was not so lucky while conducting a survey in the jungle of Metog in southeastern Xizang in 2022. He was bitten by a tick and came down with a rickettsial infection, a disease that is difficult to diagnose and can be life-threatening if treatment is delayed.

Zhou had a high fever for a couple of days and experienced aches throughout his entire body. The doctor in the remote county failed to diagnose the disease and didn't give him the right treatment. "It was so painful that I even thought about suicide," Zhou said.

A doctor friend of his in Guangzhou was informed of his plight, correctly determined the cause and recommended an alternative treatment.

"He suggested that my doctor in Metog treat me with doxycycline (an antibiotic used to treat many kinds of bacterial infections)," he said. "It saved my life. But the medicine also killed many healthy bacteria in my body. I felt ill for a long time and had to spend half a year recuperating."

Since his recovery, Zhou has continued his botanical explorations around the world — and has continued to experience other maladies.

During his trip to Vietnam earlier this year, he was bitten by a species of fire ant, which caused his leg to swell rapidly. His local guide tried to squeeze out the venom by using a knife to cut the wound open.

Zhou managed to visit a hospital and had to take antibiotics for two weeks. After returning to Guangzhou, he visited a hospital there regularly to treat his wound for another month. Despite the difficulties, he said his woes are nothing compared with the joy and excitement he derives from his botanical excursions.

"Knowing plants and their names has given me a new way to look at the world," he said."In Turkiye, I found that the locals cultivate a type of olea because they like eating its nuts. In Malaysia, I found palm oil can be used for many things."

Looking ahead, Zhou said he plans to make three overseas trips annually, hoping to add three new families and 200 genera of plants to his world list each year.

With just two trips this year, he has already added five families and 184 genera of plants to his list.

"So after finishing my work in Xizang and a trip to South Africa, I might add 10 families and 400 genera to my list by the end of the year," he said.

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