Photographer, 93, still captures Harbin images

Since Zhang Ying bought her first camera in 1959, the 93-year-old has shot more than 70,000 photos.

Zhang walks around Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, every day with a mini-digital single-lens reflex camera and takes photos of whatever she finds interesting.

She got her start thanks to a 1959 business trip to Beijing, "which made me quite excited," said the retired civil servant. "I really wanted to record the precious journey in the capital, so I spent 60 yuan on a camera."

"You may have no idea about the amount at that time," she told China Daily. "It was a total sum of one month's salary for me and my husband."

That camera was the vehicle that started her journey in photography.

Over the past 60 years, she's bought eight different cameras and spent most of her spare time taking photos.