Aerial photos preserve shantytown

Li Xinyang is doing an aerial photography project capturing the destruction of run-down areas in the country.

Li recently passed by Xiyuzhuang and heard that it would soon be pulled down. He decided to take photos of the place—his childhood paradise—to remember its history and compare its past and future.

As an experienced model airplane operator and aerial photographer, Li had all the equipment needed.

Since 2006, when Li became interested in model airplanes, he has assembled more than 300 fixed wings and a dozen mini unmanned aerial vehicles by himself, spending about 700,000 yuan ($11,300).

When asked why he is so obsessed with model airplanes, Li laughs and says it is because he is a playful person.

Li got top marks on his college entrance examination, and in 1995 he was working for a foreign company in Beijing, earning a good salary. But he was unwilling to be constrained. Li quit his job when he was 23 and spent two years backpacking all over China.

When he ran out of money, he returned to Beijing and set up an advertising company. Several years later he had accumulated enough money to support himself to continue "playing".