Former loggers turning over new leaf

Zhang Baoku displays some of the items he has collected in the mountains. CHINA DAILY

In the hall of the 'mountain king'

Ask anyone in Yichun, Heilongjiang province, for the name of the person who knows the surrounding mountains and forests best and you'll get the same answer: Gege Shanhuo, or "Brother Mountain Food".

Having been born and raised in the mountains, and having earned a living collecting mountain produce for more than two decades, Zhang Baoku revels in his nickname. He's one of the few people left in the city who's still engaged in work that involves hardship and danger.

The 48-year-old father of two lives with his wife and children in a small house at the foot of a mountain in the south of the city. From outside, the house barely looks habit-able, but once you enter you're in a different world.

The two small rooms are a treasure trove of mountain wares: various types of stone, traditional Chinese herbal therapies made from ingredients such as ganoderma, a mushroom that grows on wood, and hundreds of other items Zhang has collected over the years.

Zhang's home is his "mountain museum", and during his constant wanderings he has developed the skill of knowing where to find the best produce, and the right time to collect it.

That skill has attracted a large number of loyal customers, many of them from other provinces, and Zhang receives regular payments for providing ingredients for traditional medicines.

The business brings him about 4,000 yuan ($625) a month, and although it's a stable line of work, that stability was hard-won.

Zhang travels into the hills almost every week, the only exceptions being when heavy snow closes the roads and he's unable to leave home.

He usually spends four or five days in the mountains on each trip. Nowadays, he keeps in contact with his family via his cellphone, but for many years he was unable to contact them for days at a time.

He's never told his wife about the dangers he's encountered over the years, but mountain people know all about the natural dangers, which range from infected mosquito bites to attacks by wild animals, and the perilous nature of the work itself.

"Once every spring, I go to catch ants. One year, when I was with some friends, we found a tree where I often catch ants and we saw a large black thing in the distance. At first we thought nothing of it and kept walking. But when we got closer, the black thing heard us approach and turned round－we were struck dumb with terror because it was a big black bear," he said.

"It stopped for a moment and then ran away. Luckily, there were three of us, or the consequences could have been disastrous. I didn't enter that forest again for a long time," he said.

He was also knocked unconscious when he fell 5 meters out of a pine tree he was climbing.

Zhang's love of the mountains started in childhood when he helped his father collect wild vegetables, pine nuts and mushrooms.

In the 1990s, he joined a local forest farm, but he only worked there for two years because the logging industry was being wound down.

"Almost all of the young people left, but I chose to stay," he said.

The mountain has sustained him and his family for many years and he treats it with absolute respect.

"The people who live on the mountain love the mountain, and to make sure life is sustainable, we never collect too much of one item, we always leave some behind. When I'm too old to continue collecting stuff, I hope I will be able to share my experience with young people and help them to protect the mountain," he said.