From flying high to watching the sky

Top: Tibetan antelopes cross the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in a picture Gu Ying took in 2016 in Qinghai’s Hol Xil. Above left: Gu Ying takes shots of emperor penguins in Antarctica in 2015. Above right: A polar bear plays with its cub in the Arctic Circle in a photo taken by Gu Ying in Canada in 2014. Photos Provided To China Daily

Former paraglider stays connected to beloved sport through bird-watching, photography, Xing Yi reports.

Gu Ying was once a paragliding athlete, winning gold medals in national competitions. But now, she is a wildlife photographer, taking photos of endangered species.

In the past three years, Gu trekked to the Earth's "three poles" - North Pole, South Pole and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau - to catch a glimpse of wildlife living in the most extreme environments of the planet.

Her shots of polar bears, emperor penguins and Tibetan antelopes, and her efforts to promote public awareness of endangered animals won her the title of 2016 Chinese Culture Person of the Year, given by the Chinese Culture Promotion Society on Wednesday.

Gu was born into a military family in Beijing. Her parents worked in the air force and, when she was still a little girl, her family was relocated to a radar base in the mountains near Xuzhou, Jiangsu province.

"Sometimes I missed the school bus, and had to walk alone on the mountainous paths between home and school," recalls Gu. "I got my guts and love for nature during that period of time."

After graduating from university, Gu worked in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and started a successful business in the late 1990s, but she never forgot about the mountains and went outdoors whenever she could.

Once, when Gu was hiking a mountain, a para-glider flew by and waved at her.

"I was thrilled because I once wanted to be a fighter pilot," says Gu. "The para-glider evoked my childhood dream."

Gu then registered for a para-gliding course, and after three weeks' training, took flight. "It felt like I was a bird and belonged to the sky."

Since then, Gu has taken many classes and later became a para-gliding athlete. She won gold medals four times in national competitions and set a national women's record for 100-kilometer para-gliding.

In 2009, Gu fell from the sky in an accident and broke her back. Luckily, her spine was not irreparably injured. After three months in bed, Gu was able to stand up again, but she had to say goodbye to her para-gliding career.

"We para-gliders call ourselves bird-men," says Gu. "When I couldn't fly like a bird, I found another hobby - taking photographs of birds."

Since 2011, Gu has taken photos of around 1,000 species of birds in dozens of countries. Some of her photos of rare birds have been included in The Handbook of the Birds of the World.

Starting with bird photography, Gu gradually became a wildlife photographer.

In 2014, Gu embarked on a journey to capture the moment polar bears bring their newborn cubs out of their caves after hibernation. It took her more than 10 days at a base within the Arctic Circle in Canada to get a good shot.

The next year, Gu flew to inland Antarctica to take shots of the emperor penguin. This time, she was stuck in a camp near the habitat of the penguins for 18 days because of strong storms caused by the El Nino effect.

"Everyone was frustrated, but I was very happy because I could spend more time taking photos of emperor penguins," says Gu. "And only in storms could one represent the real living environment of emperor penguins."

"Every day, I spent more than 10 hours out there photographing the penguins," adds Gu.

Last year, Gu went to Hoh Xil in Qinghai province three times. She wanted to photograph the Tibetan antelopes in the least populated area of China 5,000 meters above sea level.

In order to capture the Tibetan antelope's breeding process, Gu remained hidden from 5 am to 9 pm every day.

"I could not go outside, nor eat any food with smells. It was really tough, but I think it was worth it," says Gu, whose photos have been used by the Hoh Xil local government in applying for the UNESCO's World Heritage List.

"After all these years photographing wildlife, recording their lives has begun to feel like a responsibility for me," says Gu.

"But I don't want my photos to be the last 'living monuments' of those species that can be seen only in a frame."

Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn