Changing China

Beijing’s moving artists

In the unlikely event Parkour ever becomes an Olympic sport, at least the hosts won’t have to build a venue.

“The art of moving” is an urban pastime that involves getting from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible and overcoming obstacles using only the human body.

It started in the suburbs of Paris but has spread to cities around the world and, like many Western imports, has ended up in Beijing.

Du Yize, 22, is a student the Beijing Film Academy and was always much keener on sport than he was on schoolwork. He spent a long time training in the the Chinese martial art of wushu, or kung fu, before one day he came upon pictures of Parkour enthusiasts on the internet and decided to look into it.