In urban jungle gym, Kashgar's young athletes play

Tucked into a corner of Kashgar's old city, near the busy and bustling hat bazaar, is a cluster of narrow alleys and a range of high and low houses, one sitting slightly uphill from the other. To Mardan Alip, the buildings and dead ends looked like an opportunity: a chance for fun, something to jump on.

The 18-year-old high school student in the oasis city of 500,000 people in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, was always jumping, vaulting and flipping in the air, using whatever structures he could find - ranging from park benches to rooftops.

In many cities of Xinjiang, the latest outdoor craze for the young is parkour - a training regimen that started in France and has gone viral worldwide.