China Flight: German former flight pioneer focuses lens on China in 1930s

An exhibition known as China Flight is to stage at the Chinese Embassy in Berlin on July 11 with precious old photos of China taken by German deceased aviation pioneer Wulf-Diether Graf zu Castell-Ruedenhausen in 1930s.

During the early part of the 20th century when flying was still an adventure, Castell was commissioned to set up an air traffic network in China with the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurasia from 1933 to 1936.

As the first European to view China from above, Castell retained a number of unique precious image data with his Leica camera.

His aerial photographs have frozen unique landscapes of China that no longer correspond to today's image of the country in many ways.

"We also compare the old China and you can see the difference from what has happened in this country," Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, chief representative of Leica Galleries International, also the co-organizer of this exhibition, told Xinhua on Friday. "The differences are so impressive because what was once countryside is now megacities."

"After the first few flights, I was overwhelmed by the nature of the Chinese landscape so that I decided to hold its special structure in the photograph," said Castell once.

A total of more than 1,500 film negatives have been preserved from this period.

"I was informed by Castell's families of a photo portfolio about 5 or 6 years ago," said Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica, " These photos are incredibly fascinating. I had already said at that time that we would show this. This was the starting point of the exhibition."

According to Karin, the exhibition, which allows people to rediscover China, is also scheduled to take place in Beijing and Shanghai this September. Endit