Looking at eyes in the skies

Lush grasslands. Snowy fields. A small workshop. The Great Wall.

Liu Jia has seen it all through his “third eye” — his drone.

“I love this thrill,” the full-time drone operator says.

Liu, who was born in 1986, fell in love with drones even before they became popular in China. When he worked as a public servant, he spent his spare time helping his friends record weddings and travels with a drone.

Recognition of his talent spread through word of mouth, and companies started to seek him out.

Liu quit his job to devote himself to filming with drones in 2016.

His work covers everything from commercial videos to minifilms.

Drone operator has become a popular profession due to its creativity and relaxed workload, especially since the boom of internet advertising, short videos and automated agriculture.

More Chinese farmers are turning to drones for sowing, fertilizing and artificial pollination.

A professional operates a drone to spray pesticide on a farmland in Huichang, Jiangxi province.

“Agricultural drones are up to 80 times more efficient than manual laborers,” says Zhang Qiang, who works with an agriculture-automation company.

Drones using loudspeakers to remind people to wear masks and spraying disinfectant are no longer confined to science fiction. They are being used across China amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

Drone filming isn’t easy, though. Days of work from design to editing are behind every few minutes of video.

During one shoot inside a factory, a crane suddenly moved and hit his hovering drone.

“I can’t imagine what would have happened if the drone had fallen and hit us,” Liu says.

He loves his “dream job”, especially when his friends praise his works.

“I have a higher income and more free time for fitness and reading,” he says.

Liu’s occupation was included as one of 13 new professions identified by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Most of the new occupations are related to emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data.

“Rapidly developing technology is creating new jobs while weeding out outdated professions,” says Chinese Academy of Social Sciences expert Zhang Yi.

“The emergence of a new occupation, which may have taken more than a century in the past, now takes place every year.”