She was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese teams for the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark and 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Cheng Fei was born in central China's Hubei Province to a father who was a shipping clerk and a mother who worked in a tire factory, not a very wealthy background.

Indeed, said her mother, "Our family was poor so we hoped Cheng Fei could in some way change her life...we thought maybe being a professional athlete is good for her."

Her performances on those two pieces of apparatus were instrumental in securing victory for China in the team championship, but they also earned her the individual vault and floor exercise world titles.

In 2007 Cheng began the year by winning the vault, balance beam and floor exercise titles at a World Cup event in Maribor, Slovenia.

She won another bronze medal on balance beam (15.950) and placing 7th in the floor exercise event final (14.550), after an uncharacteristic fall.

[8] In a show of respect she gave the winner of the balance beam final Shawn Johnson of United States a small box with silk inside it.

[9] Her last 2008 competition was the 14th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Madrid where she won two gold medals on vault and floor exercise.

[11] After taking almost two years off from competitions due to a leg injury, she competed in the 2011 Chinese National Championships in May on vault and floor exercise.

She announced her intention to compete in the University Games in August, but she was reported to be suffering from leg injury again and withdrew from the competition.

In April 2012, Cheng competed at the Zibo World Cup in her home country, qualifying second into the vault final behind the Dominican Republic's Yamilet Peña Abreu.