Engineer finds art in the air

Once dismissed as children's toys, balloons became Xu Dengyong's path to entrepreneurship, professional recognition and building a new industry.

Xu Dengyong, 37, first noticed balloon art on an online variety show in 2013. One of the guests appeared in an outfit made entirely of woven balloons. At the time, Xu was working as an engineer at an electronics factory in Guangdong province, living a stable life.

He never imagined that balloons — which he then saw as little more than "children's toys" — would one day become the foundation of a business earning him more than 1 million yuan ($147,000) a year.