Forty-year-old Zhu Yue has already spent almost $160,000 of his savings building a homemade, full-scale version of an Airbus A320 jet. He once told reporters that it has been his dream since childhood to own a plane. Zhu, an aviation admirer, earlier worked as an auto mechanic and now he plans to turn his replica into a restaurant with a simulation cockpit and rotating turbines.
Here is a look at what else some enthusiastic Chinese have managed to patch together themselves.
Zhu Yue and his friends work to build a full-scale replica of the Airbus A320 plane, in Kaiyuan, Liaoning province, China April 3, 2018.
Farmer Tan Yong (L) and a friend after they surfaced in his home-made submarine, on Danjiangkou reservoir, in China's central Hubei province. Tan Yong bolted together his two-tonne craft, christened the "Happy Lamb" after a popular cartoon character, in just nine months and has steered it down to depths of eight metres.
This picture taken on March 21, 2014 shows people looking at several life-sized "Transformer" models on display in a yard in Jinan, east China's Shandong province. A group of farmers in China has undertaken an unusual hobby: building life-sized "Transformer" models out of second-hand car parts, some as tall as 12 metres high.
This picture taken on October 29, 2014 shows 48 years old carpenter Liu Fulong driving a wooden car made by himself on a street in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province. Liu Fulong, who stopped his education after primary school, spent more than 3 months on this wooden electric car that could travel at full speed 30 km per hour when fully charged, local media reported.
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© AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
A man wears a mask as he rides in a home-made motorized vehicle during a polluted day in Beijing, China, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015. China's capital Beijing issued its second smog red alert of the month, triggering vehicle restrictions and forcing schools to close.
A woman drives a home-made motorised mini-vehicle outside the venue of the 16th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai on April 19, 2015. China is crucial to foreign carmakers as the world's biggest auto market, but slowing economic growth and a corruption crackdown are denting its appeal as they gather for the country's premier industry show.
Wu Yulu (L), a robot-making Chinese farmer, shows off his home-made robot at a park in Beijing on April 29, 2009. Wu, now well-known in China for building robots of his own designs, using nothing but scrap and a fifth-grade education.
This picture taken on February 19, 2014 shows Guo (R), a farmer in his 50s, stands by his self-made scale replica of a Lamborghini with his grandson (C) sitting in it, on a street in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province. Guo spent 6 months and about 5,000 yuan ($821) to make the 2-meter-long, 1 meter wide "lamborghini" as a toy for his grandson. The replica, mainly made of scrapped metals and parts from electric bicycles, bears five sets of batteries and can travel as far as 37 miles when fully charged.
