She won the marathon gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

[2] She won the silver medal in the marathon at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, and won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, one second behind the silver medalist.

In 2010, Zhou took second place at the Seoul International Marathon, finishing behind Amane Gobena with a time of 2:25:01.

The performance made her the seventh woman in history to surpass the barrier of two hours and twenty minutes in the marathon.

[5] She set a half marathon best of 1:08:59 hours at the 2008 Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon, winning the race in course record and China all-comers record time.