Before TV programs and iPads dominated the leisure time of Beijing kids, flying kites was one of their favorite pastimes. Nowadays you can still see many kites flying high above the city's major parks, with many old Beijingers still keeping the hobby alive. Today we meet one of the people still dedicated to the age-old craft of making kites: Liu Bin.

Continuing the ancient tradition

Kite flying is at the heart of many old Beijingers' fond childhood memories. Swallow shaped kites tended to be many people's favorite, because of the association with the bird migrating back north in Spring, arriving in Beijing when the city is generally sunny and windy. The swallow kites Liu Bin creates are elaborately painted with auspicious flowers and animals, which, it is hoped, carry good wishes high up to the sky.

Here are five bats painted on the kite, symbolizing five blessings, because bat in Chinese is pronounced as fu which means blessing. Here 'bat and peach' means happiness and longevity. Green bat here symbolizes happiness and wealth. Bat flying from above means happiness falls from above, etc. There are quite a lot of connotations in this small kite.

Fat, thin and big-head swallow kites represent male, female and children respectively. All these beautiful creations are made by the hands of Liu Bin, who is an outstanding example of the 'Cao school' method of making kites. The name for this school comes from Cao Xueqin, the author behind literary classic "A Dream of Red Mansions". Cao wrote a book hundreds of years ago about how to make traditional kites, with his advice still followed today by many kite makers across northern China.

Using bamboo transported from the south, the wood is scraped, sanded and baked, before being placed into a structure and covered with painted cloth. The result is a kite that not only looks beautiful, but can also fly extremely well.

Inheriting the old, while creating something new. Liu has even incorporated the elegant image of a ballerina into the shape of his swallow kites, with the smaller versions taking on average ten hours to make. Liu believes the attention to detail makes his kites perfect.

"You have to take the responsibility for the craft. If you don't put your whole heart into the process, the kite will betray you, and the results can be seen by other kite makers and customers. So you can't be careless in any step of the manufacture process," said Liu.

Liu's father, who used to be an opponent of him going into the trade, is now a big fan of his work. Liu's patrons are also large in number, including both kite flyers and tourists. Liu enjoys not only the process of making the kites, but also the happiness of sharing his craft with others.

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