Aerial footage of Helong Stadium
What’s it like flying a powered paraglider over the sky? Hunan native Liu Chang knows best. He wears many hats: a member of the national powered paraglider team, the head of an aviation club, and his latest, coolest title—filming the first aerial shot of the blockbuster film *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*. Liu has seen the scenery at 2,800 meters and plans to fly even higher, above 3,000 meters. Liu’s life has always been like the song by Wang Feng goes: “I want to fly higher, fly higher.”
He achieved the best result for China at the World Championships
Why did he become a “flying man”? Liu admits that he was a “playful kid” from childhood, playing with model airplanes when young and motorcycles as he grew older. Aviation sports are the real-life version of model airplanes and require engines and power like motorcycles, combining both interests perfectly. So when he first encountered this sport, he threw himself into it without hesitation.
Speaking of this skill, Liu learned it after graduating from high school when he and friends “teamed up” to seek a master in Hubei. “I’m from Yueyang, and my mother is from Hubei. At the time, I heard there was an aviation club in Hubei, so I went there with friends,” Liu recalled. “The training was actually quite tough. We had to get up at 4 a.m., drive half an hour to the training site, and practice unpowered paragliding. We practiced ‘pulling the canopy’ every day—that is, trying to get the canopy to stand up. Just two or three pulls would leave us drenched in sweat. Hubei is also hot, and our clothes would be wet several times a day.”
Liu is now a member of the national powered paraglider team and represents China in intercontinental and international competitions two or three times a year. His best result was finishing 28th at the World Championships. He told reporters, “That’s the best result China has ever achieved globally, and no one has surpassed it yet.”
Flying in the sky is cool, and aviation sports events are too. Liu said he is particularly skilled at “pole looping with a ball,” where contestants must fly in figure-eights or specific patterns around poles while keeping a ball between their feet without dropping it.
Another fun event is “touchdowns.” This involves placing platforms of varying sizes at different altitudes—the higher the platform, the smaller its size and the greater the difficulty. Contestants must use engine power to reach high altitudes, then shut off the engine and glide precisely onto the platform.
There are also fuel-saving flight events, where participants are given a set amount of fuel and compete to see who can fly the farthest by leveraging air currents.
Unlike Olympic sports, aviation sports don’t require centralized training. Only before major competitions do organizers call up team members for a month of training, and the selected athletes vary each time. Even so, this elite circle consists of only about a dozen people. Liu impressed the national team selectors with a brilliant performance during an exhibition match.
A trendy sport like “flying” naturally didn’t sit well with his parents. Liu admitted, “At first, my parents didn’t agree. They wanted me to join the military, so I deliberately failed the physical exam. I didn’t dare go home during that time. It wasn’t until I started winning competitions that they became somewhat supportive. Even now, they’re always worried about me—after all, I fly so high.”
The few seconds of movie footage took five flights
In *Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons*, the opening scene shows the camera flying through clouds, gliding over canyons and rivers, until it reaches the small fishing village where Chen Xuanzang subdues the fish demon. This shot was created by Liu and his team.
How did he get this opportunity? Liu casually explained, “Because I had previously done aerial filming for the Hollywood film *Unleashed*, they recommended me to the *Journey to the West* production team. The special effects director called me, and I flew to Hengdian.”
Although the shot lasted only a few seconds, it wasn’t easy to film. Liu laughed and said they ended up filming around five times in Hengdian.
“The first attempt started at 8:30 a.m.—technically not a good time to fly—but we still wanted to try. The clouds were thick, so we couldn’t shoot,” Liu recalled. “The second time was at 10 a.m. By then, the fog had cleared, visibility was great, and we captured most of the footage.”
Later, to refine the footage and gather more material, Liu flew three more times. But either the air currents were too strong or the aircraft flew too close to the mountains, leaving the shots unsatisfactory. So they mainly used the footage from the second flight. For the last attempt, Liu personally flew with the special effects director.
Watching the movie, the shot looks smooth and effortless as it dives down, but the actual filming was nerve-wracking. Liu gave the reporter a sense of the danger: “The plane’s wingspan is 11 meters, and the canyon is only about 30 meters wide—and it’s trapezoidal, getting narrower the lower you go. Can you imagine how tense it was to fly through that?”
Besides *Journey to the West*, Liu also worked on aerial filming for *Unleashed* last year. He said there aren’t many people in China who can do aerial filming professionally, and he landed such jobs because he “started playing with cameras earlier than with flying machines.”
Next goal: Fly above 3,000 meters
Beyond just flying, Liu is also a tech-savvy “homebody” who loves modifications. He said he used to modify motorcycles and now modifies aircraft—basically, he enjoys DIY projects.
Currently, Liu is developing a new type of powered paraglider. He told reporters, “Older motorcycles used two-stroke engines, but modern ones use four-stroke engines. However, paragliders still use two-stroke engines. I want to create a four-stroke booster.” When talking about this, Liu’s enthusiasm was evident. So far, he has invested over 100,000 yuan in developing the new booster, pouring all his accumulated knowledge of motorcycle engines and mechanical skills into the project.
Liu explained that the new booster not only offers advantages like better fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness but also performs better. He hopes to break several records with it: “Currently, the highest altitude reached by powered parachutes in China doesn’t exceed 3,000 meters. I’ve flown up to 2,800 meters. With the new chute, I hope to surpass 3,000 meters. The longest flight time is currently around two to three hours, but I aim for ten hours.”
He said the new powered parachute has already undergone test flights, and he hopes to achieve mass production after refining it. He believes this will be “a milestone in the history of aviation sports.”
After the interview, Liu gave the reporter a ride to the station on his beloved motorcycle. He said he isn’t the traditional model of a good student, but aviation sports have allowed him to shine—thanks to his hands-on skills and adventurous spirit that refuses to follow the rules. He hopes to fly even higher and wants more unconventional friends to experience the amazing views from the skies.