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.