Going up

Hot air ballooning is a new pastime for Chinese, but it's catching on fast. Deng Zhangyu takes to the air with some brave spirits in Changzhou, Jiangsu.

Just a couple of years ago, Chen Chunyu could only imagine what it would be like to ascend 1,000 meters above the ground, to a place between the clouds and the sun. Now the hot air balloon pilot routinely takes "selfies" against a bird's-eye view of a city, then drifts away for the pure joy of floating through the air. Since 2011, Chen has flown over mountains and rivers, volcanos, grasslands, terraced fields and other picturesque places around China.

"It's different from taking a flight by airplane," he says of his special kind of aircraft that allows Google Earth-style sightseeing without a computer screen or cellphone. "It's a dreamlike feeling when you fly above the carpet-like clouds."