Odd inventions China
Luo Jinsha drives his home-made aircraft during a test flight on the outskirts of Shanghai, February 26, 2014. Reuters

The staggering number of cars on China’s city streets has made buying and registering vehicles a headache for most. As a result, some people have ditched the conventional car to get around and have invented their own non-conventional modes of transportation.

Perhaps surprisingly, China is home to many amateur inventors, a lot of whom who don’t have formal training in engineering or science, but instead a passion and some time to dedicate to the trial-and- error process.

One of these amateur builders is Luo Jinsha, a 28-year-old migrant worker living in Shanghai, who spent eight months and roughly 40,000 yuan, or $6,529, to build a homemade aircraft to fulfill his dream of flying.

Luo, who has spent most of his earnings on his aircraft project, which during its first test run did not get airborne. Still, Luo is determined to improve his work and won’t give up on eventually being able to fly it successfully.

Luo, it seems, is in good company. Take a look at some other homemade transportation inventions in China over the years, like the miniature homemade Lamborghini, equipped with signature gull-wing doors!

Some may not be too surprised by the amount of amateur inventing that goes on, China does after all have a long history of game-changing inventions. Paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass, sometimes known as “the Four Great Inventions” were all invented by Chinese.