Born in Jinan, Shandong. Zhao came sixth in U12 World Girls Championships in Menorca, in 1996, equal 18th in the U14 World Girls Championship held in Oropesa del Mar in 1998, fifth in the U16 World Girls Championship held in 2000, also in Oropesa del Mar, equal third in the World Girls Junior Championship of 2001, seventh in the U18 World Girls Championships in Heraklio in 2002 before she made her first serious impact on the world chess scene in the same year when she won the 19th World Junior Girls Championships (2002), played in Goa.

Zhao easily won the national women’s 2002 Olympiad selection trial with 23/31, and justified her selection in the team by scoring 11/12 on board 4 in the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled (Olympiad, women (2002)), thereby scoring 3 gold medals: a team gold, an individual gold for best performance on board 4 and gold for the best rating performance at the Women’s event. She followed up this excellent result by winning individual bronze (for rating performance) and gold, and a team gold, in the 36th Olympiad, Women (2004), an individual gold and team bronze at the 37th Chess Olympiad: Women (2006), and a team gold when the Chinese team won the Women's World Team Championship (2007).

Zhao's tournament record is also distinguished. In 2000, she won the Balatonturist Open in Budapest and the Budapest FS07 IM-A, the HeiBei zt 3.3 (Women) in 2001, the Groningen Harmonie Open-A in 2003, the Cannes Stroer (Women) (with 9/9) in 2003, the Chinese Women's Championship in 2005, and in 2007 came first at the Queens Chess International Woman Grandmasters tournament and equal first with Zhu Chen in the North Urals Cup (2007). She scored a sweeping victory at the at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Nalchik (2011), scoring 9.5/11 (TPR 2816), 2.5 points clear of outright second place getter Ju Wenjun, who in turn was a point clear of the rest of the field. She qualified for the FIDE Knock-Out Women's World Championship (2012) and defeated Canadian WIM Natalia Khoudgarian, Georgian IM and WGM Nino Khurtsidze, and Ukrainian IM and WGM Mariya Muzychuk before losing to Indian GM Dronavalli Harika in the fourth round.

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