Zhao was born in 1957. He showed great interest in calligraphy and painting as a little child. Since 1998, he has studied photography systematically and devoted himself to the cause. He has traveled to Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan, covering hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Till now, he has held four solo exhibitions and won four prizes in the National Exhibition of Photographs. His works have been published in Popular Photography and Photographers' Companion. In 2007, he won the golden medal of the 11th Star Prize of Heilongjiang Province. In 2008, Zhao was awarded for his "Nikon in China" piece. Zhao is a member of the China Photographers Association, Heilongjiang Calligraphers Association and is chairman of the Fuyu County Photographers Association in Heilongjiang Province.