Cao Lixi, an 82-year-old man who lives in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province, has fixed over 1,000 table tennis rackets over 64 years and received two national patents for his workmanship. /VCG Photo

Neighbors who are fond of playing ping pong come to Cao for help maintaining their equipment. He also makes ping pong rackets himself, with each taking hundreds of operations and days to finish. Even Olympic champions are fans of his hand-made rackets. /VCG Photo

Cao was a ping pong enthusiast and won lots of competitions when he was young. He was a witness of the Sino-US "ping pong diplomacy" in the spring of 1971, which helped two countries begin the thaw in relations. /VCG Photo

With the support of his local community, Cao has set up his own workshop and found a talented apprentice learn his skills. /VCG Photo