Going up

Photo provided to China Daily

To Cheng, each flight is a different experience due to the uncertainty. Pilots can only control the ups and downs of the balloon, so a balloonist needs to be good at predicting the wind direction.

"A single change of the wind direction can influence my route. That's why it attracts me," Cheng says.

Although Cheng is eager for the challenges of flying balloons through more complicated routes, he is very careful about safety. People involved in the group insist that hot air balloons are one of the safest aircrafts.

"If it's not safe enough, I wouldn't take my son with me almost every flight," Fu Xueying says.

Fu is mother to a 9-year-old boy. She joined the first generation of China's balloonists when she got her pilot certificate in 1995. But now she is a housewife, and piloting a balloon is an escape from housework.

As soon as her son's holiday begins, Fu says, she will take him to fly.

"My son loves ballooning with me. It's safe. If the weather is good, we can have a nice talk above the sky. Sometimes we even make a phone call to our friends from the air," she says.

Safety is important for a mother like Fu and other entrepreneur pilots. But taking up challenges is the priority of Liu Xiang, who holds the record for the longest hot air balloon flights in China.

Liu has taken many risky flights to places that many travelers can't reach. His dream is to fly over Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest in the West.

Half of the highest mountain in the world is in China. To fly over it as a Chinese pilot, Liu says, is his dream for the future.

"I love risks," he says.