Man spends 20 years building a shelter for endangered plant species

In 2000, when most people around him were expecting him to accept a job offered with the China Academy of Sciences, 36-year-old Fang Zhendong made a jaw-dropping decision of going to Shangri-La in southwest China’s Yunnan province to build a botanical garden there.

Fang Zhendong collects plant samples in Shangri-La, southwest China’s Yunnan province. (Chinanews.com/Liu Ranyang)

“When I was visiting the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I saw a lot of alpine flowers growing there. They were brought to Europe from the southwestern region in China, but in their hometown, there was no place for people from around the world to appreciate the flowers and pay attention to biodiversity there,” said Fang, explaining the reason why he chose to stay in Yunnan to build a botanical garden as a graduate in biology.

With an altitude of 3,400 meters, Shangri-La in Yunnan offers up a gigantic gene pool for plants as it plays a part in preserving 330 varieties of ferns and 4,600 varieties of spermatophytes.

To turn his vision into a reality, Fang undertook painstaking efforts. The first difficulty he encountered was a shortage of money. Fang used his savings to support the construction and operations of the garden. It was not until three years ago that the man finally said he did not have to borrow money.

Fang Zhendong observes plant samples through a microscope in his office. (Chinanews.com/Liu Ranyang)

Over the past 20 years, Fang relocated plant species with extremely small populations from inhospitable environments into the garden for better protection, providing a shelter for valuable species. Today, the garden houses 1,000 spermatophytes, including red azalea flowers and Rosa praelucens that are endemic to Shangri-La, as well as 30 fern varieties.

Fang’s garden has offered jobs for the local community. “At first, the local people didn’t understand what I was doing, so I organized training sessions for them and hired them afterwards. In the past, many young women here stopped working after they were married, but nowadays my garden has given them a chance to start a career near their homes,” said Fang.