“Seeing Life,” a biodiversity exhibition featuring photos of Shenzhen plants and animals, opened at Guan Shanyue Art Museum on Tuesday.

The exhibition is curated by the museum’s head Chen Xiangbo and Shenzhen author Nan Zhaoxu. “There are more than 20,000 species of animals and hybrids of plants in Shenzhen,” said Nan. “The biodiversity of our planet, our country and Shenzhen is beyond our imagination. In your residential community, if you grab a handful of soil and put it under a microscope, you can see a lively world. Thousands of bacteria are hustling and bustling.”

From North China’s Shanxi Province, Nan was an American and European literature teacher at Shanxi University. After moving to Shenzhen in 1989, he founded his own publishing and documentary production company, Yuezhong Cultural Transmission Co. With a passion for Shenzhen, Nan wrote two books on the city’s history, “The Shenzhen Memory (1949-2009)” and “Behind the Old Files of Shenzhen.” As an avid lover of photography and nature, he also wrote a few books on Shenzhen’s nature, extolling the beauty of Shenzhen’s wildlife and emphasizing that humans are very much a part of it.

He believes that a city’s history is not only to be found in decades-old buildings or files in museums, but also lies in nature. By organizing countless events for children, Nan hopes to share Shenzhen’s ecological and environmental changes with locals. “Between ‘home’ and ‘nation,’ there is a ‘homeland’ for every one of us,” said Nan in an earlier interview. “My point is to let locals know that Shenzheners are living in such a beautiful place rich in different species. Please love and protect our homeland.”

Dates: Until Aug. 20

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Mondays

Venue: Guan Shanyue Art Museum, 6026 Hongli Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路6026号关山月美术馆)

Metro: Line 3 or 4, Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit B(Cao Zhen)