Desk Report:
A Chinese teenager from a village has impressed many with his passion for building rockets. This year, he has secured a place in the university’s aerospace engineering department through his persistence and hard work. Zhang Shijie, 18, is from Hunan Province. He became interested in building rockets when he was just 14 years old, sitting with his father and watching a live broadcast of a rocket launch on television.
He recently happily announced that he has been admitted to Shenyang Aerospace University, one of China’s leading aerospace research institutions, for aerospace engineering.
He had no basic knowledge about building rockets. So Zhang relied on short video platforms. He learned by watching videos of rockets made by others. In November 2023 alone, there were about 4.7 million scientific experiment videos on the platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok). Videos of building water-powered rockets alone increased eightfold that year.
Zhang’s middle school teacher, Long Yanjiao, said that although the village school did not have adequate facilities, the internet played a big role in developing his interest. Zhang continued to improve his skills using the materials he had at hand. Relying on his sister’s old laptop, he started visiting various science innovation forums.
Initially, he collected nitrate from the family’s pig farm and tried to make fuel by mixing sugar and water in the kitchen. But he failed because the fuel was not pure. Later, he was able to make pure fuel from manure using the filtering method he learned at school.
He experimented with cheap materials such as PVC pipes and cement to make a rocket engine. However, he was unsuccessful. Then he taught himself 3D modeling and design software. With the money he received as a New Year’s gift and borrowed from classmates, he bought an old 3D printer. With that, he started making rocket parts.
On his birthday in June 2023, he invited his father and classmates to watch the first test launch. Although the first day failed due to rain, he successfully launched the rocket the next day. After hundreds of attempts, Zhang has built four types of engines, multiple single-stage rockets, and a two-stage rocket. The rocket he built has reached a maximum altitude of 400 meters.
His school has also supported him. It has given him 3,500 yen (about 500 US dollars), has recruited other students, and has turned a room designated for calligraphy into his research office. Zhang calls that office his “spiritual address.” He has also made money by selling some of the components he has made to various institutions. He has used that money to pay off his classmates’ debts.
Long Yanjiao has been teaching at the school for three decades. He says he has never seen a student so deeply interested in science before. He comments—“Hobbies are the best teachers for people.”
Zhang’s family has also supported his dream. His father drives a ride-sharing car in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. His mother works as a housekeeper in another city. His father said that Zhang was not addicted to video games like other children. Instead, he would open toys and try to understand the internal mechanisms from an early age.
Regarding his university admission, Zhang said that his ultimate goal is to “design a real rocket.”
