Illustration: Luo Xuan /GT

A few months ago, my sister said she went skydiving. Now, like any other rational person I assumed she meant that she jumped out of an airplane.

Well, that assumption was wrong. It turns out that you can now go "skydiving" without even setting foot on a plane. They have a special wind tunnel that blows air at a high speed so that you can now experience the feeling of freefalling from a few thousand meters without actually doing it.

But, of course, you have to pay exorbitant rates for this privilege. I checked the prices, and it starts at about $110 for three minutes and climbs from there. It got me thinking about expensive hobbies, so I checked out some other ones to see if any compared with the wind tunnel skydiving for being good ways to burn up excess cash. I found many pastimes which cost more and were even more laughable (or reprehensible).

One of the most obscene leisure activities is big game hunting. You can pay tens of thousands of dollars to go to Africa and shoot an elephant or a rhino just so that you can have your picture taken with the carcass. This takes the cake in the foolishly overpriced hobby stakes since it also costs an endangered animal its life and achieves absolutely nothing while costing the participant an arm and a leg.

Another ridiculously pricey pursuit is equestrianism. This sport, which involves jumping over fences and trotting in difficult patterns, requires a thoroughbred horse, and those cost money. A truly excellent mare might set you back in the region of $100,000, which explains why you don't see factory workers on horseback these days. It also reveals why Bill Gates' daughter was able to become an enthusiastic rider. On the other hand, it's hard to think of anything as inanely wasteful of both time and money as gambling. Since it is also clearly addictive, spending time at a casino is not generally a good investment as some deluded schmucks obviously seem to think. This is a hobby to avoid, as even some rich celebrities (now bankrupt) have discovered.

Then there are the various forms of collecting to consider. Of course, collecting stamps or coins is usually relatively inexpensive. But if your tastes run to larger items such as cars, guns, yachts or luxury homes, then the bills can mount up rapidly. A number of movie stars and sportsmen have managed to run through their wealth and end up with only the odd castle or Lamborghini to show for it.

But ultimately it seems that anything that involves going up in the air is going to cost you the most cash for the least result. Apart from skydiving, flying (or owning) planes, whether of the full-sized or remote control variety, is another pastime that requires vast amounts of moolah for a relatively brief thrill. In the end, perhaps it's better to keep your two feet on the ground and go for a brisk, healthy walk (for free), rather than forking out giant sums for quick bursts of adrenaline-drenched ecstasy high up in the atmosphere.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.