I was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi, a small city in northern China. As a small-town swot (“小鎮做題家”), I had relatively good grades among my peers and I wanted to be a teacher since I was a kid to bring knowledge to others as my teachers did. However, it is seldom to think about the question of who I am and what I am interested in until 18 years old.

That year, after Gaokao, I entered the university in Shanghai and majored in Geography. Not bad, 985 project school, so I can naturally find a teaching job in my hometown after graduation. But studying and living in such a metropolis made me lost in the strong contradiction between a bright developed society and myself with confusing self-awareness. 

Fortunately, geography healed me when I saw seas and glaciers, I experienced changes along geological times, and I toured cities and mountains. In other words, nature attracted me with infinite mysteries and power, which also applies to me now. 

Also, very coincidentally, I joined the lab of Prof. Zheng at the end of year 1. I am grateful for her encouragement and supervision, and this experience almost changed my life. So in the later three years, I spent most of my time with Dr. Niu for some projects in the lab where I learned lots of wet lab techniques and solid foundations, and gradually realized what the research was -- the problem-solving, uncertainty, and long time. Although exhausting, I have to say experiments had their charms and I can easily be in the flow state in the lab. (Also, maybe I have some talent in it to complete some experiments perfectly at one time.🤣) By the way, the project I took charge of focused on the C and N cycles in estuarine and coastal wetlands, where we took field trips to Chongming Island. 

One day, in the lab, I thought, why not go for a postgraduate study and try different research under the carbon topic? It would be super cool to see how other scholars work and other cities are. But at the same time, in the fourth year of my undergraduate, I interned at a key middle school in Shanghai and finally got the return offer that I never dreamed of if I was just 18. The best thing was that I finally answered the question of the 18-year-old girl and told her, yes, you really enjoy teaching and getting along with your students, but you will have another dream about research.

Then, I took all my 'properties' moving to Hong Kong alone. This year of master's study was incredible for me.  For me, I met friends and professors of various backgrounds and was encouraged to try everything. I got accustomed to rejection and questioning in my life, but I gained fulfillment beyond imagination in my research. In a set of new methodologies, I worked on a carbon project on the urban scale and mastered more of modeling, supervised by Dr. Zhou and Dr. Fan. Both human activities and natural exchanges mattered in this topic and it was exactly this interaction that attracted me to clarify the logic. In Hong Kong, people have a closer connection with mountains and seas. When hiking in the hills or diving into the sea, I just remind myself that's where my heart is.

The Earth hasn't been explored yet. I hope the next station standing at the edge of human knowledge.🌟