Editor's Note: Life is once only, sometimes seemingly so isolated that we almost lose faith in our existence. But after a second thought, it should come to you that not everyone can win on the life’s altitude of how much we can achieve, but everyone could be the champion on the life’s vastitude of how unique each and everyone could be. The entirety of life’s possibilities holds us in awe that life could truly be so different. Here China Daily web-editors compile a package of the extraordinary people in China.

Liu Wei, a 23-year-old, whose arms were amputated after a childhood accident, plays the piano with his toes.

Sitting on a tallish red stool, he removed his shoes and right sock, carefully using his toes to place the sock in his right shoe. (He plays with his left sock on.) He wiped some of the keys with a tissue, and then rested his heels on a velvet-covered, narrow platform before the piano.

Time after time, he played the piece gently and flawlessly.

Liu was thrust into the limelight in August when he performed on "China's Got Talent," the Chinese version of the TV show that helped make Britain's Susan Boyle a singing star. 

"Right now, everyone looks at me and says, 'Oh, Liu Wei has no arms and it's very difficult for him to play the piano,"' he said. "In the future, I want them to say, 'Oh he's good.' To first notice the work is great, and then say, 'Liu Wei did it.' ... What I demand is that my work be so good people won't notice that my arms are missing." [Full story]

Chen Xinian - a 64-year-old man - dream for years has been to improve housing for his family, but because he cannot afford the high housing prices, he has been trying to built a home underground.

He successfully dug an 50-square-meter space six meters below the ground in his own yard in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan. 

Working for four years in his spare time, Chen has dug out a 50-square-meter room. He said the room can resist an 8-magnitude earthquake and his family enjoys staying in it because it's cool in summer and warm in winter. [Full story]

Ren Ying has been a teacher and headmaster of a primary school for 12 years in a village named Renzhuang, East China’s Anhui province.

The school now has six grades and more than 200 students, compared with a 24-student preschool class in 1998.

Ren was paralyzed after falling victim to rheumatoid arthritis in 1986 and failed the college entrance examination due to the handicap. After attempting suicide twice, she began self-study and running a school for children in the village. 

Peng, a cycling amateur, was inspired by the idea of riding more than 2,000 kilometers in early July in the hope it would improve Xiuxiu's body and mind.

Starting in Chongqing, they began the trip along the Sichuan-Tibet highway on July 8 before reaching Zogang county in Qamdo prefecture on August 9. They hope to complete their journey by August 22.

Peng has kept a blog of his cycling journey detailing Xiuxiu's daily condition and how he encourages his sick son to continue despite illness, fatigue and bad weather. [Full story] 

For nearly 20 years, an 80-year-old man has largely relied on walking barefoot to record the changing landscape of China's financial and commercial hub - the iconic epitome of China's modernization. 

He co-drafted 15 editions of the map of Pudong based on his own research and observation - using his footsteps as measurements.

"One footstep is about 75 centimeters in length, and I used it as a reference for calculating the distance between different buildings," said the cherubic bus company retiree, who is so familiar with the urban layout of the region that he is now considered a "living map" of Pudong. [Full story]

A Chinese farmer has resorted to the use of shock tactics to defend his right to land ownership by using improvised rockets to expel demolition corps that have threatened to evict him for the construction of commercial buildings.

Since February, Yang Youde, a 56-year-old farmer living on the outskirts of Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, has foiled two attempts to flatten his hut by using rocket-like weapons he has made himself.

"I shot only over their heads to frighten them, " said Yang. "I didn't want to cause any injuries." [Full story] 

After a trip of 1,500 kilometers on a raft made of plastic bottles, Xia Yu finally arrived in Shanghai on Oct 4 - but he was not able to fulfill his dream of sailing into the Expo 2010 Shanghai.

"I've been sailing for 156 days to see the Expo Garden," said Xia. "The journey has been much more turbulent than I had expected before I launched the raft."

The 36-year-old pub owner from Xiangtan of Central China's Hunan province built his 7-meter-long 2-meter-wide raft out of 2,010 plastic bottles collected at his pub and attached to a wooden frame. [Full story]

A man was spotting resting on a rope tied to trees at a park in Anshan, Northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 15, 2010.

The man once held a personal best record of seven hours for balancing on the rope, local media reported.

Two young men and a woman were testing their courage at a safari park in northwest China's Shaanxi Province through a 73-hour survival test with wild tigers.

Li Hang, Que Xiaotian and Meng Zihui stood out among 667 applicants to win the privilege to test their courage and experience the wilderness, said Ren Feixiang, manager of the Qinling Safari Park which is located in the suburbs of the provincial capital Xi'an.

The trio, aged from 24 to 25, are staying in a 10-square-meter cabin made out of a cage which has been placed at the center of the "tiger mountain area", the habitat of 48 wild tigers. [Full story] 

When most areas of Wuhan city were suffering a maximum temperature of 39 degrees Celsius on Aug 4, 2010, Luo Chun'e had to wear as many clothes as she can. "I am quite afraid of the cold," she said, adding that she was still feeling cold despite wearing a lot of clothes.

Luo became afraid of being cold after giving birth to a boy on Feb 15, 2000. Since then she has worn layers of clothes every summer and even more in the winter. People treat her like a freak and avoid getting close to her on the streets and in buses.

Her family has spent all of their money in Wuhan's hospitals to find out why she behaves like that. Some doctors say she has a nerve disorder and others say she suffers from depression. Her husband and son live in a different room where they can enjoy the air conditioner.