Economic development and high-speed trains may be how the world ponders China’s progress, but little can say better how far the country has really come over the past 25 years than a young woman leaping into a crystal-blue sky miles above a postcard-perfect beach.
Sydney comes across as a pretty nonchalant (and physically rather frail) young lady. She thinks nothing of stepping out of a plane 5,000 metres in the air to hang off its fuselage munching a pineapple (or a banana) while doing a quick live broadcast, before somersaulting herself away from the aircraft.
Hailing from Wuyi Shan in Fujian Province, Sydney has obtained the highest possible skydiving qualification; a “D” licence, meaning she has landed within 2 metres of the centre of a target on 100 jumps and spent a total of over 3 hours in free fall over a minimum of 500 jumps. Sydney has achieved over five times that many.
Now aged 30, she has more than 330,000 followers on social media and nearly 17 million likes.
But it actually all began in October, 2016, when Sydney was in Australia and saw some people skydiving during an outdoor trip. She mustered up the courage to jump with her friends, and she fell in love.
Most people are terrified to death when asked to jump out of an aircraft, but Sydney, speaking recently with Purple Cow News, simply said, “That first skydive; it was from 4,200 metres, and it was my birthday. Seriously, I wasn’t scared; I just felt cold”.
So she signed up for an AFF (Accelerated Free Fall) skydiving course in Australia, but was finally persuaded to quit because her English wasn’t good enough. That was not going to put Sydney off, though. “Maybe for some people, they may just give up, but I have a tenacity, and the more people say I can’t do it, the more I have to get it right, so I kept looking for a skydiving base to practice”.
She was to find it in New Zealand. Lucky to join a school there which takes only 32 students worldwide annually, she hurriedly signed up and successfully passed the assessment in order to be admitted. With her English much improved, just 1 month later, Sydney completed more than 50 jumps on her own to obtain a “B” licence for skydiving.
Fast forward to today, Sydney recalls how her hallmarks that are eating watermelon, having a drink or applying makeup during a skydive over the Shenzhou Peninsula in Wanning of Hainan Province, all came about. “The first time I ate in the air, it was an accident; that is, I didn’t eat breakfast that day, but I had brought a banana along. It somehow became more aromatic in the sky!”. While today, many others imitate her, Sydney looks also to convey a point of view; don’t imitate at will, and don’t litter.
Naturally, the reason for most people’s terror of skydiving is the real possibility of it all turning out to be a really bad day. As Sidney said, “Extreme sports actually require the most concentration”.
It was 2021, and Sydney went skydiving in Hainan as usual. “I was in a bad mood at the time and was a little half hearted, which affected my performance”, she said. Misjudging her braking efforts and with the winds particularly light, Sydney’s left forearm took the impact.
Doctors said she would need 6 months to 1 year to recuperate. That being a language Sydney does not understand, she removed her cast after 2 weeks and was back in the skies a month and a half later. She jokes that she will take out the steel plate in her arm the next time she is injured.
Today, Sydney basically maintains the habit of jumping every day unless the weather does not allow, while her job as a skydiving photographer brings in more than its fair share of interesting clients.
Once it was a 92-year-old grandfather, pushed by his son in a wheelchair and carried onto the plane, who was among them.
But that sticking with Sydney the most was the terminal-cancer patient who was only in his 40s. “He knew that he was nearing the end, so he wanted to experience the feeling of soaring in the sky to understand the meaning of life”. Sydney was moved to tears.
