Baseball scores a home run for the children of Liancheng

Scorching sun and the telltale clink of bat and ball marked another day of baseball training for 15-year-old student Jiang Zhigui.

Like most Chinese youngsters, the middle school student is new to baseball. But the sport has a special meaning for Jiang, whose family works in local factories producing balls, bats and other baseball accessories to players worldwide.

In Liancheng county, a Hakka mountain county in eastern Fujian province, where Jiang lives, baseball is both an economic pillar and a favorite sport.