origins of kiting

A casual search on google.com brings up some interesting stories about kiting in Ancient China. It seems the Chinese, who invented kites of course, used giant kites around the time of Christ to spy on enemies. They'd loft some poor soul up in the hopes of being able to view across enemy lines.

Marco Polo observed kiters being launched off of ships during the 13th century in China. Apparently, in this situation a drunk was hoisted. If he was lifted and survived the ordeal it was meant the sailors would have a successful journey.

Just some more useless trivia from the net....

I saw the Nazca line a number of years ago in Peru. They were made hundreds of years ago and are drawings visible only from the air. While there are lots of explanations for them, I always wondered if they used kites to pull someone up into the air to see them and direct their drawing. Your mention of kites in China 2000 years ago suggests that the ancients could have done so.