DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Air 2 My neighbourhood in China

Heindrich1988

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2020
Messages
324
Reactions
867
Location
China and the UK

Taking advice from my last video, I tried to fly with a bit more purpose and variety, instead of just flying high in the sky looking at the landscape from above. My location is not as nice as last time, but I feel that I've made some progress in composition, flight and editing. As always, advice and feedback is welcome. :)
 

Taking advice from my last video, I tried to fly with a bit more purpose and variety, instead of just flying high in the sky looking at the landscape from above. My location is not as nice as last time, but I feel that I've made some progress in composition, flight and editing. As always, advice and feedback is welcome. :)

This was better , I enjoyed the details , what does it say on the side of the building. ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Air 2 in the Rain and Float on Water.
 
This was better , I enjoyed the details , what does it say on the side of the building. ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Air 2 in the Rain and Float on Water.

The big characters are "星城翠龙湾", the name of the neighbourhood... which incidentally, has little relation to its English name of "Exquisite Bay". Literal translation would be something like Star City Emerald Dragon Bay. The smaller characters are basically a slogan about high quality construction and "building a good life".
 
The big characters are "星城翠龙湾", the name of the neighbourhood... which incidentally, has little relation to its English name of "Exquisite Bay". Literal translation would be something like Star City Emerald Dragon Bay. The smaller characters are basically a slogan about high quality construction and "building a good life".

I learn more from videos like these about china than i can on any National Geographic special.
This really puts in perspective the size and population and beauty of your Surroundings . im going to ZBJ.com lol

Thanks for sharing.

Screenshot 10-17-2020 11.21.29.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heindrich1988
Thankyou for your video. When I was working I visited Beijing many times on business and have since been back on holidays. The thought of living in that sort of area with miles of high rise is the stuff of nightmares.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Len750 and SkyeHigh

Taking advice from my last video, I tried to fly with a bit more purpose and variety, instead of just flying high in the sky looking at the landscape from above. My location is not as nice as last time, but I feel that I've made some progress in composition, flight and editing. As always, advice and feedback is welcome. :)
I am very impressed with the video and the neighborhood. The density of the buildings is overwhelming. I wondered, while viewing, where all of the people and cars were for such a high density building complex?
I am also impressed with the top down views of the buildings. I am quite fearful of flying that high, and above people. If you lose the drone, it would be quite impossible to find it on a roof top. In any case, its was a great video and a very informative one.

Dale
Miami
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Heindrich1988
I am mostly curious about the restrictions, if any regarding the use of your drone in the city ?
 
Thankyou for your video. When I was working I visited Beijing many times on business and have since been back on holidays. The thought of living in that sort of area with miles of high rise is the stuff of nightmares.

lol I see that you're from Australia. I'm not sure if it's like the UK there in the sense that typically, only poor people live in high rise apartments, which are often ugly and crime-ridden council estates. Most moderately well-off people live in the suburbs with their semi-detached houses, gardens and fences.

In China, there is no such cultural aversion to living in high rises. In fact, the more central a neighbourhood, the more expensive it is. My boss in Beijing owns a modest-looking tiny apartment (50 square metres) in Beijing's 2nd ring road, which would be considered a "dodgy inner city estate" if it were in London, is worth about £850k ($1.25M). Also, within the same apartment, the higher up you go, the more expensive it gets.

Once I got over my initial unease of walking under the shadow of high rise apartments (instinct from UK council estates), I don't mind them at all. In fact, I love living high up with a great view!

Check out the view from my apartment in Beijing on the 18th floor...

WeChat Image_20201018230053.jpg

I loved to sit on there and just bathe in the sunshine and read a book or something. That picture didn't do the view proper justice.

I think my neighbourhood in Beijing was beautiful at ground level too...

WeChat Image_20201018230041.jpg

WeChat Image_20201018230057.jpg
 
Quite extraordinary. China used more concrete in a decade than the US in a century. It shows.

Looked like a ghost town but new. Until I looked at the highway out your 18th floor window. Yep, cars.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heindrich1988
My question is...after the flight, how did you get back to your homepoint among all the similar looking buildings? I imagine you use RTH a lot? ? ?
I would have been lost trying to find my way back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heindrich1988
Gee! where are all the cars parked?

If you check out my video at 1:31, you will actually see a car coming out of an underground car park from the left. If you check out 1:37, you will see another car coming out an underground car park from the right.

Exquisite Bay is actually split in 4 parts. They were built in 4 phases, so each neighbourhood's full name is actually something like "Exquisite Bay Phase One", "Exquisite Bay Phase Two"... etc This is a typical naming convention in China because big developers tend to build multiple neighbourhoods of similar style in the same area.

The roundabout that I fly over at 1:24 is in the middle. From the roundabout, the bottom left and bottom right are Phase One and Phase Two. They are the apartments with the paler exterior. The top left is Phase Three, the top right is Phase Four. Each "Phase" is more or less a separate "gated community", in the sense that it has security guards at the entrances. But not in the sense of an exclusive community surrounded by slums, as in other developing countries.

Anyway, finally getting to your answer... each "Phase" has its own underground car park shared by all the apartments in the Phase. For example, I live in Phase Three, from my apartment, I can take a lift to the underground car park and then directly access any other apartment in my Phase via the car park.

Fun(?) fact... (I hesitate to mention this cos I don't wanna alarm people lol) it seems the newer neighbourhoods built in the last 5-10 years or so also use their underground car parks as air raid shelters. They aren't proper bomb shelters, because I don't think there's a store of food and essential supplies for long term habitation. But they do have heavy duty blast doors, presumably designed to stop shrapnel and contain fires.
 
I am very impressed with the video and the neighborhood. The density of the buildings is overwhelming. I wondered, while viewing, where all of the people and cars were for such a high density building complex?
I am also impressed with the top down views of the buildings. I am quite fearful of flying that high, and above people. If you lose the drone, it would be quite impossible to find it on a roof top. In any case, its was a great video and a very informative one.

Dale
Miami

Thanks for the encouragement. :)

To answer your questions:

1) I answered above about the car parks.

2) The roads look relatively empty because I filmed in the afternoon, around 3pm-5pm. Most people who drive are still at work. Also, by Chinese standards, this is not densely built at all. As mentioned in the details of the YouTube, this is not technically a city. It is about 17km from the nearest official city (Dongguan) and about 45km from Shenzhen, which is obviously much more famous.

3) There were people walking around the neighbourhood. But again, in the day time, kids are at school and adults are at work. So, it was mostly just elderly people walking around the gardens. The intro shot I took at the entrance of Phase 4 took several attempts because I didn't want to have people close up in the shot.

4) I was quite careful for all the shots at a lower level and maintained VLOS. For the shots from higher up and further away, I was stood on the roof of two different buildings. Most of the time, I had direct line of sight between the drone and my controller. I also tested RTH the first time I flew my drone off my roof, so I was confident that even if it lost signal, it would elevate to a safe height and return to my designated rooftop. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Capt KO
I am mostly curious about the restrictions, if any regarding the use of your drone in the city ?

Technically, my neighbourhood is not in a city... It is 17km from Dongguan in the north and 45km from Shenzhen in the South.

It's hard to define in English terms and I suspect its designation will change in the future. For now, it's township-level settlement in a District of Dongguan. I suspect that as Songshan Lake continues to develop, it will be designated as a city in its own right. Huawei has poured a lot of resources into the area and a brand new urban centre is forming next to the lake.

As for restrictions... officially, China has similar national rules to the US. (chiefly VLOS and 120m altitude) But frankly, the national rules are basically disregarded at a local level. Instead big cities have their own rules that are actually somewhat enforced. For example, all of Beijing is a no-fly zone. Shenzhen has very clearly defined zones with varying degrees of restrictions (and a no-fly zone was imposed on Shenzhen for a week due to the visit of President Xi).

Outside of big cities, there is little knowledge of national rules (DJI employees openly disregard them) and there is no real enforcement. So far...
 
Wonderful pictures! What are the rules of drone flight in Beijing?

Unfortunately, all of Beijing within the 6th ring road, which is basically the entire city, is a no-fly zone. Which makes DJI's newest flagship store in Beijing a little odd. lol

I suppose they'll get customers looking to fly on day/weekend trips to Hebei. I went on a horse riding trip at the edge of the Mongolian Steppe last year. I wish I had my drone then.
 
My question is...after the flight, how did you get back to your homepoint among all the similar looking buildings? I imagine you use RTH a lot? ? ?
I would have been lost trying to find my way back.

lol... I did indeed have to use RTH the first time I flew off my apartment roof. But the two apartments I fly from are both distinctive and easy to spot from the air, so I don't have that problem anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MavicAir2Marc
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
131,127
Messages
1,560,117
Members
160,099
Latest member
tflys78