Taking the long view

Readers continue deeper to encounter strange-looking fish, and giant octopuses and squid. They encounter The Titanic shipwreck at 3.5 kilometers and the Chinese manned submersible Jiaolong at around 6.6 kilometers. They next encounter the Monkey King, who's examining the magical cudgel he got from the ocean-dwelling Dragon King in the classic novel, Journey to the West. The cudgel is able to grow or shrink to any size and becomes the protagonist's main weapon in the ancient book.

The journey ends at a depth of over 10.5 kilometers.

The total image is 30 meters long. It pairs written explanations with photos in vivid and humorous ways that made Sun and his team famous overnight.

The post on WeChat soon received over 100,000 hits. They created another post, comically entitled "Flying Into the Sky" a month later.

It picks up where the last adventure leaves off-at the bottom of the ocean-and continues down through the Earth's crust until users emerge on the other side of the planet.

But they keep going-past famous buildings, birds, spacecraft, the moon, man-made probes, the solar system, the Milky Way, constellations, black holes and celestial bodies that have been observed outside our galaxy, all with clever quips and scientific explanations. The journey covers 9.1 billion light years.

The posts' popularity enticed an editor from major publisher China Citic Press to approach the team about making a book.

JBQH Studio doesn't post daily. It took roughly three weeks to create the first long picture in Photoshop.

"We thought making a book would be easy. We'd just print the pictures we'd made," Sun says.

"But the resolution was too low. And the images were too narrow."

So, they started over. And they added content to the original two pictures to make them even more interesting. It took two years before the book was ready.

The two-volume book, Wanwu Manyou Zhinan (The Rover's Guide to Everything), with images measuring 65 meters long in total, has sold over 150,000 copies, generating over 3.8 million yuan ($0.56 million) in revenue since it was published in November. Another print run is underway.

"It is about 2.57 yuan per meter," the book's advertisement on WeChat says.

The studio has continued creating popular WeChat posts in their signature style, covering a range of topics, such as the human digestive system; menstruation and ovulation; typhoons; the human spine; syphilis; staying up late; sperm donations; imperial examinations in ancient China; HIV/AIDS; and the history of using urine in pregnancy tests.

"We like diverse topics. We don't want to limit ourselves," Sun says.

Lu Hao, one of the creators, says they often encounter difficulties.

"For example, we wanted to do one about how the human body decomposes. But we don't want to be scary, disgusting or offensive," the 26-year-old says.

"We tried different painting styles and made several drafts. It's finally done, a year later. We posted it on Sina Weibo. It got 10 million views and 20,000 forwards."

The studio now has a total of 1.5 million followers on Sina Weibo and WeChat. Companies have approached the team to create advertisements.

Perhaps one of the most famous is for the Chinese skincare brand, Pehchaolin, which proved to be "more popular than 'Going Down Into the Sea'", Sun says.

The studio has expanded to 21 members. They're working on creative cultural products, videos and books, in addition to popularizing natural science on their online platforms.

It indeed seems they've come a long way in a short time.

Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn