A company specializing in drone R&D in the city of Guiyang, Guizhou province that was founded by three students has become a pioneer in a place where there are already many business pioneers.

The three founders first entered this field by working with model airplanes in 2008 then got into the drone business in 2010, but they encountered a lot of difficulties along the way.

In looking back at those years, Wang Xun, one of the founders, says, "When our first drone, which was worth 100,000 yuan ($16,000), crashed on its first test flight we were devastated. We had really tough time, but I am glad we stuck to our dreams."

The three bounced back when they came up with a new drone that had zero crashes in 3,000 test runs that also attracted the attention of others in the industry. Now, after three years of testing, the drone is being used to take aerial photos and videos used for a live broadcast of the opening of the Guiyang-Guangzhou high-speed railway and the company has opened a second store at a digital industrial park in Guiyang's high-tech district.

In commenting on these developments, Hong Yang, a chief executive at Guizhou's Jingyuan Huateng Technology Co and a professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University, says he is most attracted by Guiyang's support for entrepreneurs, which is why other people like Wang and he have chosen Guiyang over traditional large cities like Beijing and Shanghai to start a business.

He goes on to say, "A lot of pioneers come to Guiyang not just because of its convenient transports, but also the preferential policies. I can sense the government's desire to develop Guiyang more and I am more than happy to put my patents and research to practical work here," then adds, "The best is yet to come."

Hong says he thinks that Guiyang is experiencing a golden age in pioneering and development with larger numbers of people with ability and that this will go on for a long time.