Compared with indulging in smartphones and games, Zhang Yixuan prefers spending his summer vacation walking in wild nature, encountering little creatures like shrimps and crabs.

The 17-year-old went viral on Sina Weibo recently for his knowledge of biology, which led him to discover a new species of freshwater crabs of the genus Sinolapotamon last year.

Zhang is now a senior student at Yulin High School, which is situated in the city of Yulin, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Like most of his peers, Zhang is facing immense academic pressure as he is preparing to attend the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, next year.

However, his bedroom is packed with dozens of "living treasures "that he has collected from the outdoors, including insects, fish, shrimps and crabs.

Stepping into his bedroom, you can see numerous tiny eyes. Different in size and look, crabs are crawling in their containers on a huge shelf. It seems that they quite enjoy their life there.

"This one is a species of Nanhaipotamon that I caught in a mountainous area. You can see it just shed its shell," said Zhang, pointing to a vibrant crab moving its amusing eyes around.