Fascination, not fame keeps Guo's love of plants alive

As I planned a holiday to see wildflowers in southeastern Yunnan province, a region known for its rich flora and fauna, one of my travel mates suggested that we hire Guo Xibing as our "flower guide", and stay at his house for a couple of days.

When he went to Malipo county in Yunnan about 10 years ago as a volunteer plant collector for Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Guo was his guide. His deep knowledge of local plants left a strong impression on my friend.

But he had concerns. Guo had become wealthy, and fortune and fame can change a person. For the proposed fee of about $100 a day, he was worried that Guo might not be willing to work as hard to show us as many wildflowers as possible.

"He could easily just show us a few noted Malipo flowers and call it a day," he said.

Guo dispelled our misgivings in less than half a day.

When we arrived at his house on our first morning in Malipo, he invited us to have a quick brunch before heading into the wild. For the remainder of the day, he guided our car along dirt roads winding along the border between China and Vietnam until we reached remote valleys hidden in the area's karst mountains.

From time to time, he'd ask me to pull over and then disappear down a trail into a valley or up a slope on his own. Once he found plants that were in bloom, he'd call on us to follow his tracks to see them. We stopped dozens of times along the way and managed to see a number of fantastic flowers that you can only find in that part of the country.

Guo was genuinely happy with his discoveries and took many pictures with his smartphone. We kept going until dusk.

The next day, we left his house before 7 am and again, returned at dusk. Several times during the day, I overheard him phoning botanists and briefing them on his sightings. It was an exhausting day for all of us.

On the third day, he took us to his gardens. That morning, we passed through a gate near his house to explore one section, and in the afternoon, we drove a couple of kilometers and visited another section via another gate. Guo's garden is divided into four sections, which are scattered across different parts of the mountaintop.

He showed us more than 20 species of flowering orchids, some growing on the trunks of big trees, and others in cracks. Without him, we would have had no way to differentiate them from the tens of thousands of orchids growing all over the rocky slopes.

As he guided us, Guo also kept telling us to watch our steps. If he hadn't, we might easily have stepped on some orchids or rare Chinese herbs. Meanwhile, he was constantly weeding or removing pieces of dead wood from the trail.

That's when we realized why Guo was willing to guide us. He is still passionate about his work. Like a lion, he patrols his territory regularly.

"I will feel uneasy if I don't climb the mountains for three or four days," he said.

And so I decided that he was well worth writing a story about.