Ma Jiqing is the kind of man who looks for a coin on the ground while not losing sight of the moon. Though farming and painting may not seem connected —with one being down-to-earth and the other a refined pursuit—the 72-year-old has been doing both for the past 50 years.

The farmer-turned-painter has created works presenting the development of the country’s rural areas by showing scenes of rural life, good harvests and satisfied families.

Ma, who lives in the county-level city of Qingzhou, Shandong province, had his own way to celebrate a recent farmers’ harvest festival-painting several new pieces.

One of his works show a lot of corn dwarfed by nearby hills.

“These paintings are a salute to farmers and the festival,” says Ma.

Typical farmer paintings are hand-painted with watercolors on paper. Their bright colors, thick lines and exaggerated patterns enable Chinese farmers to show rural life and express their views.

Ma is also contracted by a farmer-painting organization in Qingzhou. Paintings of different sizes hang on the walls in his workroom.

“This one earned a national award,” says Ma, pointing to a painting that covers half of a wall.

Ma has enjoyed painting since he was little. As his family was poor when he was a child, the cornfield was his workroom and borrowed comic books were his teachers.

“When my parents were farming, I liked to draw them on the back of my notebook. And I traced patterns from comic books to learn skills. “

I prefer to be called ‘farmer’ instead of ‘artist’. The farmland will always be my spiritual home. Canvases (画布) are my fields, and I want to come up with drawings to better reflect the aspirations of farmers. “ he says.

Chen Yin is one of the first people in Urumqi to start organizing real life Takagism (密室逃脱) games in the city. Takagism is a game. People are locked in a room together and they have to complete several tasks to get out of the room in the game.

“I decided to organize it just to have fun and play with my friends. Takagism was very new to the city at that time,” says Chen. Chen and his friends play the game just as a hobby, and only ask everyone to pay 40 to 50 yuan. “Most of the time we don’t communicate with those players after room escape, we meet different people every time.” Chen says.

To their surprise, after about a year of holding the game, room escape starts to become more popular, but Chen and his friends decide they just want to keep it as a hobby, and have no interest in making money through the game. None of Chen and his friends will give up their full-time jobs for the game. Takagism is still a hobby for Chen.

Now Takagism is a popular activity among young people like Chen to meet new friends.