French "Spiderman" Alan Robert, known for his exploits in scaling tall buildings across the world, has performed a duet feat with a villager climbing a mountain in central China using only bare hands.
Both were invited by the Zhangjiajie scenic spot management company to perform their stunt at a cave atop the 1,518-meter-high Tianmen Mountain in Hunan Province of Central China.
Forty-five-year old daredevil Robert, who is said to have been arrested and fined more than 100 times for climbing buildings around the world, scaled the mountain in an hour-long ascent without using any equipments, state media reported.
But it came as no surprise because in 1996, Robert had climbed the Far East Finance Center in Hong Kong, taking only 25 minutes to scale the tower’s 48 stories.
But different from Robert, Chinese villager Su Xueli also performed stunts while descending from a 200-meter-long rope hanging from the top of the cave.
"I had only done this with 50-meter-long ropes. It is a challenge for me, and it is more difficult and dangerous than ever," Su was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
The 54-year-old man honed mountain climbing skills in 20 years experience of picking Yan’er, a rare mushroom and tonic delicacy that usually grows on high mountains.
He now ekes out a living by performing climbing stunts before tourists, after the mushroom picking was banned in 1998 to protect environment.
"I accepted (the company’s) invitation because I want to show the local Chinese mountain-climbing skills to the spiderman," he said.