I have had a dream of flying in the sky since my childhood, as my father was a first-generation pilot of China's civil aviation. The airport is overlaid with my childhood memories. My father's career rained great influence on me, and luckily, both my children and I have found civil aviation as the outlet for our ambition.

There has sprung up in our family a feeling and attachment stronger than we thought, and we have also witnessed the development and growth of China's civil aviation.

In 1950, the fledgling civil aviation industry of the New China had an annual passenger transportation volume of merely 10,000. Only about 30 small aircrafts were in operation, and the total transportation turnover per week was only 1.57 million tons-kilometers. It is through seven decades of hard work that China's civil aviation has progressed to a new stage. The industry has been built from scratch into global operation.

In recent years, the industry has been undergoing sustainable and rapid development, and its importance in the national economy has progressively manifested itself in terms of air transportation, general aviation, fleet renewal, airport construction, flight safety and personnel training. With years of painstaking efforts, we have scored great achievements that have been recognized worldwide.

By 2019, the soaring number of 1.352 billion passengers nationwide accelerated expansion of China's airports, attaining a total transportation turnover of 129.325 billion ton-kilometers. For ordinary people, traveling by plane is no longer a luxury, and our airplanes take them to farther places across the globe.

My family lives conveniently near the Beijing Capital International Airport, and next to West Lake Park, which is located to the southwest of Terminal Three of the Capital Airport. Here you can watch the plane take off and land up close. There is also a high platform facing the airstrip. It has become the first choice destination for photographers in Beijing to take pictures of the planes, and it is also a place for people to watch planes leisurely.

I've been taking strolls here every day to watch airplanes, take photos, and feel the roar of the wings. It is precisely because of the busy traffic we have vastly different types of people, and here I can capture with my camera a rich mosaic of human life.

Unlike most people who come to the West Lake Park to "chase" airplanes, I pay more attention to people's enthusiasm for airplanes and the stories behind it. I am more interested in the people against the backdrop of the airport, and try to establish a certain relationship or emotional attachment between the people and the plane through my photo composition.

One time when shooting an airplane landing, I suddenly found an old man standing up from a small chair and taking out a photo frame from his hop-pocket. The moment he fixed the landing plane into his photo frame, I couldn't help taking out my cellphone and pressing the shutter immediately. Upon asking, it turned out that the old man was holding a picture of his wife, and he came here to respect her last wish as she had never taken the plane in her lifetime.

On another occasion, I saw a motorcycle with four people stop by the side of the road. I quickly lowered the shooting angle and merged the motorcycle with the plane into one frame. I was moved by their enthusiasm when they were fixating on watching the plane, and I further understood that they are two migrant workers who take their children to see the plane during their rest time.

Most people never look up at the sky. By comparison, the way they look up at the sky symbolizes their uplifting attitude toward future life.