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.