hobby


MY NEW HOBBY

If there is one thing the Chinese know well…. it’s kites. I mean after all they invented them a few thousand years ago!

Kunming is the perfect place for this activity. Nice weather and windy! So I decided to get set up and start flying! I found a kite shop near Dauguan Park where they make their kites. I bought a 1 meter nylon job and a kite line reel. Check out the pic and you can see my rig. I’m at Fujian Lake launching my kite here. This rig is stainless steel loaded with 1500 meters of special line. This machine is unlike anything around. I’ve looked all over the web and nobody makes these, but they seem to be a standard design here in China. I paid $22.00 for it, and another $3.75 for the hand made kite.

On any day the sky is filled with kites here. It’s a lot of fun that involves more skill than I first thought. You’ve got to pay attention to keep it flying and slowly get to altitude. I’m able to get all 1500 meters of line out most of the time. It turns out that you end up getting some good exercise out of this as well.

I bought another kite thats a parafoil design. Much bigger at about 1.5 meters across and total of about 5 meters long. This one almost goes into the power kite category. It has some serious pull flying this baby. After you get this one back down, your arms feel like they are going to fall off!

Anyway, it’s a fun sport that requires little investment, plus I can load up my little moto and take it anywhere. Every year the world’s famous kite city in Eastern China (Weifang) holds it’s kite exhibition. Competitors from all over the world come here to take part. I’m planning to go next year.