Photo provided to China Daily

"I like playing the ancient lute, guitar and flute. I also like painting and calligraphy, riding, archery and shooting," says Li.

Several years ago, he gave his friend's son a model toy ship as a birthday present. When playing with it, he found himself falling deeply in love with model toys, and started to develop model airplanes and ships.

Within a year, he had bought model vehicles for air, land and sea, and studied how to assemble and operate them by himself.

Li founded a folk association with some 40 members, who often play with model airplanes. It is called Xiangyu Club. On weekends, club members get together and play with their models—practicing taking off, landing and simple pattern movements in the air.

Li was unsatisfied, finding the activities too simple. "How about fighting?" he suggested. "We can fly our model planes to fight against each other, the one who crashes the other's plane down is the winner!"

The model planes flew and crashed into each other in the air, and the people on the ground cheered. Several crashed to Earth. "Exciting!" says Li. "Although we destroyed seven or eight planes, we still enjoyed it very much, everyone from the 70-year-old grandfathers to the 15-year-old boys."