Zhang Shupeng competes at the 7th World Wingsuit League Wingsuit Flying World Championship in Tianmen Mountain, Zhangjiajie, Central China's Hunan Province in 2018. Photo: Courtesy of Zhang Shupeng

Jumping from a cliffside launchpad more than 1,500 meters above sea level on Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Central China's Hunan Province, Chinese wingsuiter Zhang Shupeng does some target practice ahead of the 11th World Wingsuit League (WWL) Wingsuit Flying World Championship scheduled for September. Behind him, a crowd watches and films the stunning flight.

The video of the flight had garnered more than 160,000 likes after being uploaded on Douyin, China's version of TikTok, as of Wednesday.

Wingsuit flying is one of the world's most dangerous sports. Athletes wearing wingsuits leap from high altitudes and glide through the air without the aid of engines, relying solely on gravity and aerodynamics. Once they reach a safe minimum altitude, they deploy a parachute to land.

"It feels like growing a pair of wings and flying like a bird," Zhang told the Global Times in a recent interview. "No other sport scene compares to this, because the entire sky belongs to you."

One of the main events in the WWL Wingsuit Flying World Championship is target-hitting - the discipline that Zhang has been training for. In this event, a one-meter-square target is suspended in mid-air by four lines stretched across a canyon. Pilots must hit the target using the camera mounted on their helmet, aiming for the bullseye: A black circle just 10 centimeters in diameter, worth a perfect score of 90.

Once a member of China's national paragliding team and winner of international honors, Zhang now has more than a decade of wingsuit flying experience.

"There are probably fewer than 30 people in the world who have won world championships in multiple sports," Zhang said. "I want to be one of them."

Zhang Shupeng wears professional attire. Photo: Courtesy of Zhang Shupeng

Chasing flight dreams

Born in 1985 in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Zhang's fascination with flight began in his teenage years when he watched a TV program on paragliding. 

In 2004, he joined a paragliding club. Four years later, Zhang was selected to be a member of China's national paragliding team and won gold at the 5th World Paragliding Accuracy Championship in 2009, making him China's first world champion in the sport.

Yet, for Zhang, the blue sky held more opportunities.

When asked why he transitioned to wingsuit flying, Zhang recalled that when he first saw news reports and videos about the sport, he thought it was far too dangerous - something only "crazy people" would do. He told himself he would never try it.

He did not change his mind until 2012 when the first-ever WWL Wingsuit Flying World Championship was held at Tianmen Mountain. Seeing the sport up close, his perception shifted. "I found it wasn't as dangerous as I'd imagined. It's something you can only truly understand by being there."

Later that year, he traveled to the US to begin formal training in wingsuit flying, starting with skydiving. At the time, the sport, which started in the 1990s, was still niche - globally, there were only 600 to 700 wingsuit pilots, Zhang told the Global Times.

Reflecting on his early training days, Zhang said his coaches used to call him a "machine" because he never seemed to need rest. While most enthusiasts at the training base would make three to five jumps a day, and professional teams averaged six to eight, he pushed himself to complete up to 12 jumps daily, so focused that he often skipped lunch.

Zhang's transformation was rapid. After 207 skydives over 44 days, he completed his first wingsuit flight on March 15, 2013. 

"When we returned to the base, the staff announced over the loudspeaker, 'This is Zhang Shupeng from China, and today is his first-ever wingsuit flight.' The place was packed, and everyone stopped what they were doing to cheer and applaud," he recalled. "Their reaction was probably a bit more exaggerated than mine."

Breaking limits

In 2024, Zhang achieved what no one else had in Tennessee, the US. Launching from an altitude of 13,118 meters, Zhang flew 30.216 kilometers in a single glide, setting the world record for the longest wingsuit flight distance and becoming the first person to complete a wingsuit flight in the highest part of the stratosphere.

At that altitude, Zhang said, his body feels the effects of cold, low oxygen levels, and sharp pain in the ears caused by sudden pressure changes. "Very few people ever reach that height, which is why you get to witness a kind of breathtaking beauty that most people will never experience," Zhang said.

When he first began training in wingsuit flying in 2012, the sport had an accident rate of nearly 30 percent, due to factors like limited equipment, technology and experience at the time, according to Zhang.

In his view, "There are no dangerous sports, only dangerous people." Every sport carries some level of risk, but what matters most is following the rules. "If you respect the rules, you stay safe. If you don't, there will definitely be danger."

He describes wingsuit flying as "a highly scientific discipline" - one he approaches with "strict discipline and a rational mindset."

Since 2014, Zhang has safely completed more than 1,700 wingsuit flights at Tianmen Mountain.

Each wingsuit training flight lasts just one to two minutes in the air. But for that brief moment of flight, he spends nearly two hours preparing - packing his parachute, hiking up the mountain with a 10-kilogram load, and returning to the launch point.

Even after a full day of flying, Zhang heads to the gym at night for strength training. All of it, he said, is part of his push to once again chase a world championship title.

"I enjoy taking on challenges and hope the records I set will inspire more to break them," said Zhang.