An abiding love for Tibet(2)

But for her, it's all about beauty in the eyes of the beholder. She is especially moved by a line of poetry she read before she enrolled at Nanjing University's department of forestry: "Men in the forests are New China's artists".

She had asked to be sent to Tibet after she graduated in 1955, and she had to wait for more than 20 years before she finally got her wish, repeatedly applying in between.

For most researchers, Tibet was not a popular choice. It was low in oxygen, there was little known about it then, and it recorded scary extremes of weather.

But Xu says she had "no sense of bitterness or fear" for the unknown. Instead, the petite scientist says she takes pride in her relationship with Tibet because her smaller lungs "made it easier to adjust".

She is convinced that nature is benign and that "people might, but nature never bullies me".

During her stay in her famous little wooden house research base in the 1980s, little wood thrushes would come to her and rest on her palms and dogs were her faithful companions. Even blood-sucking bugs seem to prefer her to others, Xu jokes.

"There was once about 400 leeches on me during one expedition. That's a record."

Known to her neighboring Tibetans as Siona Zhuoga, or "daughter of the forests", Xu has often been compared to Jane Goodall. And like Goodall, she has brought the spirit of her work with her wherever she has been.

When she retired in 1995 to Beijing, she brought back a little bit of Tibet where, as head of the Beijing's Lingshan Tibet Museum Park, Xu introduced Tibetan plant species to inland China.

"My priority right now is to spread a more-informed understanding of Tibet to the younger generations," Xu says. "Tibet's too precious. It can only live on well if everyone cares for it. It depends on the future generations."

To this purpose, Xu still lectures nationwide and gives guided tours to visitors to the museum park.

Dong Yongshu, Xu's assistant at the park for 15 years, says she is touched and transformed by Xu's endeavours.

"I used to be an ordinary clerk. But all of us are eco-conscious because of her. We recycle. We cut down on driving."

Xu has a maverick view of human beings versus nature.

"We are but one tiny element of the entire eco-system. We're like the ants. Why should nature comply to just our needs?"

Her book, Dream of Tibet, is "a heartfelt confession of my out-of-the-blue infatuation with Tibet" scheduled to come out next year. "Tibet is my cause. I'm a preacher for Tibet. A preacher for the way of nature."