Ren Zhen with the children of the "Nature Growth Camp."
Ren Zhen explains the spine bone of an antelope to the kids.
In the Qinling Mountains, a 6-year-old boy named Liu Zeyi got into a fight with another child over a wild fruit. Punches and kicks were exchanged as they engaged in a “wrestle.” The parents of both sides tried to step in and break it up, but were stopped by the short, lean-faced team leader Ren Zhen: “Everyone, don’t interfere. This kind of argument is a necessary part of a boy’s growth.”
The two little ones fought for a full five minutes, crying as they threw punches. Not far away, Ren Zhen, many other children, and parents watched from the sidelines. Liu Zeyi, who usually gets weak in the legs, falls often, and is often bullied by other kids, “had his first hysterical outburst.” His transformation brought tears of joy to his parents standing nearby.
Ren Zhen brought the two children together: “You’re very brave to solve the problem in a boy’s way.” At that moment, the two little men hugged each other.
This is how Ren Zhen educates children.
Since founding the "Nature Growth Camp" in 2008, which focuses on outdoor exercise and learning, the number of families participating in outdoor education with Ren Zhen has grown from 5 households four years ago to nearly 6,000 now. There are also many children from cities around Xi’an, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, who come during holidays to take lessons in nature with “Uncle Ren.”
This 61-year-old man, who holds the title of “Chairman of the Shaanxi Outdoor Alliance,” now spends nearly 200 days a year walking in the Qinling Mountains with children.
With years of experience in outdoor sports, Ren Zhen has explored all 72 valleys of the Qinling Mountains, conquered several major peaks of the Qinling range, and hiked through five ancient trails including the Tangluo and Baoxie routes. But in recent years, he has increasingly wanted to “do something for the children”: to take them into nature. Moreover, he has also led the children to visit more than 100 temples, Taoist shrines, churches, as well as traditional Chinese academies and hermits' huts in the Qinling Mountains.
It’s hard to imagine Ren Zhen’s childhood from his current state. Back then, he suffered from polio, “couldn’t even walk steadily at 5, stumbling around,” and could only recognize five colors and three geometric shapes. Later, his aunt, who was a medical professional, taught him to swim, and his father chose to run to work with him instead of riding a bicycle. By age 12, Ren Zhen had largely recovered, and that year he participated in the “Xi’an Spring Welcoming Ten-Thousand-Meter Race” with his father, becoming the only “father-son duo” on the track.
Not long ago, when Ren Zhen shared this story at an “outdoor education” themed salon in Beijing, some audience members whispered, “Isn’t this China’s ‘Forrest Gump’!”
Ren Zhen later really did join the military like Forrest Gump, serving in the Air Force for five years. After being discharged, he worked at what was then Xi’an Foreign Languages Institute and never stopped engaging in outdoor activities. Nowadays, every weekend, he leads the children of the “Nature Growth Camp” to explore the Qinling Mountains.
The youngest child in the camp is only three and a half years old, and the average age is just six or seven. A group of parents also follows along. Some “veteran” team members, such as 8-year-old Le Qino, have several times ventured out alone with “Uncle Ren” to explore and learn.
Before heading up the mountain, Ren Zhen’s hand became the most sought-after “prize” among the children. His rough palms often held the hands of several kids. 6-year-old Yuan Dianyue, unable to get a hold, complained with a pout: “Uncle Ren, why don’t you have a tail? If you had a tail, we could all hold onto it and walk together.”
Ren Zhen doesn’t just take the children out for outdoor adventures. In his view, “integrating all the school subjects into one class — that class is outdoor education.”
He specially invited Liu Zhenghuai, the president of the Shaanxi Folk Culture Research Institute and a council member of the Shaanxi Education Calligraphy Association, to serve as the humanities knowledge instructor for the children. This elderly scholar, one year older than Ren Zhen, tall and thin, stands out prominently in the group. His main task during each activity is to teach the children “three ones”: one character, one sentence, and one story.
On December 8th, while crossing the Zhuyu and Zaoyu valleys in the Qinling Mountains, Liu Zhenghuai took out a beautiful calligraphy painting from his backpack — he was going to explain the character “Dan” (dawn) to the children. On the left side of the painting was a round sun just peeking over the mountaintop; on the right, from top to bottom, was the evolution of the character “Dan” from oracle bone script to regular script. The children craned their necks, listening intently to every word from Liu Zhenghuai’s slightly hoarse voice. At that moment, a red sun slowly rose over the winding mountains of the Qinling range, illuminating the character “Dan” and the faces of the children.
Although he was leading young children, Ren Zhen didn’t deliberately choose flat paths. The mountain paths twisted and turned, some only 20 centimeters wide, requiring people to sidle along step by step; some slopes were nearly 70 degrees steep, forcing both adults and children to crawl on all fours; and some sections had almost no path at all. Especially in winter, with snow and ice on the mountain, some slopes were extremely slippery.
The initial sections of the trail were usually a bit more gentle. As they walked, Ren Zhen explained things along the way. When he saw polygonum multiflorum leaves, he would tell the children about their medicinal value; when he saw tung trees, he would explain how to distinguish between fragrant tung and stinky tung; and he could identify many unnamed little flowers and grasses as well.
Li Yutong, an 8-year-old boy who has been joining the "Nature Growth Camp" with Ren Zhen since 2008, still clearly remembers that the difference between butterflies and moths mainly lies in their antennae and wings, and why the Chinese giant salamander is also called the baby fish. “We’ve seen all these on the mountain, and Uncle Ren explained them all on the mountain too.”
Compared to plants and insects, the animal that frightens and excites the children the most is another creature: snakes.
Ren Zhen is a skilled snake catcher. Two years ago in spring, teachers and students from Xi’an High-Tech Zone No. 2 School went on an adventure in the mountains with Ren Zhen. A young teacher, full of doubt, asked Ren Zhen: “Can you really catch a snake?!”
“Of course!” Ren Zhen narrowed his eyes.
At that moment, he heard birds chirping behind him, and when he turned his head, he suddenly spotted a nearly two-meter-long black rat snake, as thick as a wrist, lying in wait on a tree branch to hunt. Acting swiftly, he grabbed the snake by the tail and yanked it down. “Here!” He pretended to throw the snake at the young teacher. The teacher and the children, caught off guard, screamed and scattered in all directions.
The snake became docile in Ren Zhen’s hands, and the children gradually overcame their fear, slowly moving closer. Holding the snake, Ren Zhen looked relaxed as he began teaching the children to measure the snake’s length, smell its scent, feel its body temperature, and then compare it to their own. Then, he did something even more daring: he lifted the snake’s head and pressed it against his lips, kissing its forked tongue.
“What children fear most is a snake flicking its tongue. I do this to show them that snakes aren’t as scary as they imagine.” Ren Zhen’s approach got a response — the elementary school students shifted from fear to excitement.
“Nature is fair to everyone. As long as you respect it, nothing will go wrong.” This is the conclusion of Ren Zhen, who has been walking in nature for nearly 40 years.
Of course, not respecting nature brings lessons instead. Ren Zhen has taught many people how to identify lacquer trees — a highly toxic deciduous tree found in the Qinling region — whose tender buds look very similar to those of fragrant and stinky tung. But there was one time when his assistant ignored Ren Zhen’s warning about “not chopping down trees,” mistakenly cut down a lacquer tree, and used its branches for a fire. Several people inhaled the toxic fumes and suffered lung poisoning. “Their whole bodies were unbearably itchy, and they felt like slicing their flesh off with a knife.” The most seriously injured person had 70% of their body bandaged, “looking just like a mummy.”
When encountering some toxic plants, Ren Zhen would personally taste them like Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, demonstrating their toxicity to everyone. The little girl named Shuiguo, who has a fringe of bangs and has just turned 10, is also a veteran member of the "Natural Growth Camp." She once trekked through Pinghe and Zaoyu ridges with Ren Zhen, crossing from the Yangtze River basin on the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains to the Yellow River basin on the northern side. Shuiguo clearly remembers that along the way, Ren Zhen came across a piece of Lindera aggregata, a toxic medicinal herb. He gathered the children around, picked up this potato-like root, gently bit into it, and soon his tongue began to go numb and his face twisted. "That way, the kids remembered its toxicity, and the impression was very profound."
The children learn more than just biological and geographical knowledge by following Ren Zhen.
The mountain paths through Zhuyu and Zaoyu valleys were extremely treacherous, with thorny thickets on one side and steep slopes on the other. Ren Zhen, wielding a military shovel, walked silently at the front, digging over 220 steps one by one for the children. Xiaobeibei, an 8-year-old, sometimes had to crawl forward on her knees, her bottom sticking out, while humming the song she learned in class, "Oh Susanna": "I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee..." Meanwhile, Beibei’s mother stayed at the back of the line, 100 meters away, watching the group with Teacher Liu Zhenghuai to prevent anyone from falling behind.
But an accident still happened. A skinny child, stepping on the stairs, tried to jog downhill but accidentally lost his footing and slipped down about ten meters. Fortunately, the dense forest on the mountain caught him, and he got a five-centimeter gash on his leg that bled profusely. The child climbed back up, and Ren Zhen’s assistant Guo Yanbing opened the first aid kit to dress the wound. The child’s mother stood by and watched without saying a word. The child remained silent, with no tears in his eyes.
"It's not that we have no risks, but that we have resolved many of them," Ren Zhen later said, still feeling somewhat shaken when recalling the incident. Ren Zhen and Guo Yanbing, who has 14 years of military experience, made very detailed safety plans. Ensuring the children’s safety is also a key reason why the "Natural Growth Camp" has earned such a strong reputation through word of mouth.
This grassroots, self-established educational organization previously rarely gave media interviews. Ren Zhen and his team believe that leading by example is more important than mere words.
A mother who participated in the camp once recounted something her 10-year-old daughter had said: "Uncle Ren gave me a happy childhood."
Last July, Ren Zhen led more than 40 children and parents to climb the Qinling Mountains "amid thunder, lightning, and torrential rain." Yingying, a 7-year-old from Beijing, was part of the group at the time. In the rain, there was no stopping on the mountain—even when facing cliffs 20 to 30 meters high, they had to climb over them. Ren Zhen ran to the front of the group in the heavy rain, shouting loudly: "The Red Army fears not the trials of the Long March, holding light ten thousand crags and torrents..." As he sang, he and his assistant reinforced ropes on rocks or tree roots and secured harnesses around everyone’s waists. When it was Yingying’s turn, Ren Zhen told her: "You’ve got this ! Listen carefully to the commands, climb up, and mind your footing against the rocks."
Unlike the worried parents, most of the children became excited—some took off their rain hats, some splashed water and played, and, of course, some were so scared they cried the whole way. In Ren Zhen’s view, "This is a teaching moment bestowed upon us by nature!"
"Teacher Ren loves the children with his life," Yingying’s mother said.
Unlike his boldness in the rain, Ren Zhen is a simple man in daily life. There’s no computer at home, and in his bedroom, "there’s just a bed, a mattress, a pillow, and a few books." On the wall hang several paintings given to him by the children. He seldom cooks, usually buying dozens of pounds of potatoes, eating eight a day, boiled in hot water—that’s a meal for him.
Over ten days ago, the children learned that Ren Zhen’s over-80-year-old mother had passed away. One of the children was also diagnosed with leukemia. At the place where they often studied traditional Chinese culture, their golden retriever, who had been with them every day, suddenly died. These events hit the children hard, and some asked the adults: "What is life really about? What are we living for?"
Ren Zhen tried to answer these questions for the children. He took them to a Catholic church on the Sacred Mother Mountain in the Qinling range. The priest paused that day’s Mass and explained what life is from a religious perspective. The mothers of three of the children also shared their personal insights on understanding and approaching life: the Buddhist believer said life is a cycle of rebirth, the non-religious one said life stems from evolution, and the third mother said: "Everyone should gradually learn to think about this question and find their own faith."
The children are usually quite noisy, but that day the church was completely silent. "Our lives are a process of experience. They have no inherent meaning, so we need to give them content and meaning," Ren Zhen said.