Prainea limpato he found in Brunei in 2019.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Although fruit hunting is a sector that is still in its infancy in China, more botanists, Yang being one of them, have been building the connection between fruit lovers and fruit. A Sina Weibo user named Budaibudai comments that Yang's posts explain not only how to choose fruit, but also chart the journey of various fruits from branch to table.

In 2018, he cooperated with China Central Television on the six-episode documentary series, Legend of Fruit, in search of 50 interesting fruits across 50 cities in 15 countries. It obtained a rating of 8.7 points out of 10 on popular review platform Douban. The same year, his first book was published. It selected 37 species of fruit that he recorded in Southeast Asia. Wang Wencai, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, wrote in the preface: "The book draws readers into the Southeast Asian world of fruit."

On Oct 16, a documentary series, The Fruit Hunter Yang Xiaoyang, is set to be released on the Baidu and Haokan apps, with new episodes every Friday and Saturday. Viewers will join Yang on his thrilling journey to explore Hunan, Jilin and Yunnan provinces in search of different types of fruit.

"Through various platforms and media, I try and help people learn more about fruit," Yang says.