China Inventors' Stories

Yang invented and is producing a spherical ark 4m in diameter that weighs six metric tonnes.
Its designed to withstand collisions, radiation and high temperatures. Three people could survive for up to a year on the pilot biscuits, water and oxygen it carries.
The ark is just one of Yangs creations in the past six years. He has 300 to his credit and holds 36 patents…Twice he was cheated when looking for investors in neighbouring cities. The fraudsters took my schematic drawing, and that was the last I saw of them, he said.
In January 2008, Premier Wen Jiabao met Yang Zongfu in Beijing when he submitted his idea for snow removal equipment, at a time when continuous snow and icy rain wreaked havoc in South China…Yang Zongfu has a plan to open a training centre for inventors, to produce more good ideas and help them apply for patents.

Guo started researching how to clean automobile exhaust in 1995 and was granted a patent for his method in 2003…For 30 years, he devoted himself to his inventions…
In 2011, independent inventors contributed 36% of the 1.5 million patent applications submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office. However, they hold just 58,797 patents, making up 8% of patents in China.
Many of them have quit their jobs, even left their families behind to make inventing their profession.
In 2002, his (Li Rongbiao) wife Zhao Shuying, 70, was unable to walk for six months after breaking her ankle in a fall…he got the idea for an electric wheelchair that could climb the stairs in his building…In 2006, he sold his apartment in downtown Beijing for 400,000 yuan to start his business…

China Inventors’ Stories