Sky's the limit

Make a wish, write it on a kite and send it into the sky. "If you cut the string when the kite is at its highest point, your wish will come true," says Li Jia, a kite flier in Beijing Olympic Forest Park. When she was young, Li was told that a beautifully painted kite could also be the deliverer of your wishes.

Springtime is a kite flier's paradise, a time when the sky is a tapestry of brightly colored kites: box kites, delta wings, chicken kites and even one that looks like a string of hamburgers. There is also a 1,000-feet dragon-shaped kite.

Many Beijingers are making this a popular pastime, spending hours at a time watching them catch the wind and float 70 m or so in the air.