City of high fliers: People's Liberation Army soldiers try to fly a 100-metre-long tank-shaped kite at a competition in Weifang, Shandong province. Weifang, known as the ''kiting metropolis'', has held an international kite festival annually since 1983 in an attempt to lure tourists and foreign funds to its industry based on the 2,000-year-old hobby. Trade fairs and kite-flying festivities attracted millions of tourists and business representatives to this year's event, which closed last week with sales orders for more than 30,000 kites.