Fei Maohua was born in Kunming, southwest China, in 1974. He studied journalism at the Communication University of China from 1992 to1996. Fei was assigned to Xinhua's African head office (based in Nairobi, Kenya) in 2003, as one of the first group of Xinhua television journalists to be based abroad. Having finished his tenure in Kenya in early 2005, Fei returned to Beijing and moved to the photography section of Xinhua. In July 2005, he moved to the sports photography desk and became a sports photographer. His work has won second prize of 2007 World Press Photo Contest. Beside this, he also has won many awards worldwide.