High flier whose dream came true

When Shao Munan was a senior high school student, she dreamed of joining the Air Force and becoming a pilot. The aspiration, however, was frustrated by her being a student of arts. The Air Force preferred students with a science background for their pilot courses rather than a liberal arts student like Shao.

Upon graduation from high school, Shao enrolled in the Nanjing Agricultural University majoring in sociology. She then thought her dream to fly would never take off. But in May 2011, fate intervened when Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics threw her a lifeline with a course opened to just six female undergraduates.

"I decided to go for it," recalled the 30-year-old. She applied and was accepted and is now a vicecaptain, flying an A350 between Shanghai and Rome.