A walking encyclopedia of natural history

Zhang Chenliang focuses a camera to shoot a photo of the Monotropa uniflora Linn. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Some people become online celebrities due to their good looks or good luck. But one young man has gained huge popularity on the internet because of his keen interest in natural history.

And his name is Zhang Chenliang.

Widely known as the "Man of Natural History", or Bowu Jun in Chinese, the online star now boasts 6 million followers on Sina Weibo, one of the most influential social media platforms in China.

Every day, he fields thousands of questions, ranging from entomology, zoology to botany and geography.

In the face of this question onslaught, Zhang has developed his own system for responding.

His fans know that this "walking encyclopedia" has a set of rules for answering questions and if you aren't clever, your question may sink to the bottom of the list like a pebble dropped into the sea.