Bold in the cold

The Disko Bay, Greenland. (2008)

"Each of us lives only once," says Wang, who felt he still had time to "double or triple" his life experience by exploring new opportunities.

China's entry into WTO in 2001 was followed by a golden decade, and Wang was hired as the overseas CEO for a public company in East China's Shandong province at the astronomical salary of 1.2 million yuan ($190,000) a year.

Wild animals on Haltern Plateau in NW China's Gansu

The new job brought him to Canada. He and his friends even started a Chinese television station for the local community. But a report about a local youth driving to the Arctic stirred his curiosity and his blood.

"It's amazing! I thought the Arctic is covered by ice and snow and nobody can touch it except for professionals and researchers. My wife and I had a short discussion and we decided to give it a try."

A trip he made to Inuit settlements in the Canadian Arctic raised the curtain on a new life. It was 2005 and Wang was 55 years old. He sold his share in the TV station, and planned to start his second life.

In the Arctic Circle, he saw native people living a mixture of modern and traditional lifestyles.

"They are helplessly struggling," he says. "The scenario grasped me and I knew it is what I was looking for."

Wang plans to spend five to 10 years to record the Inuit and Sami people's lives before they are totally changed by modern civilization.

"I want to make a cultural and ecological white paper about the Arctic. Nobody has done this before," says Wang proudly as if he has discovered a hidden treasure.