Daredevil climber Alain Robert, nicknamed "Spiderman", has climbed part of a southern Chinese mountain, months after he was banned from the country for his death-defying exploits.
Robert, known for scaling the world's tallest buildings, climbed 200 metres near the top of Hunan province's Tianmen Mountain, China's Xinhua news agency said.
The Frenchman had previously been banned from China for clambering up Shanghai's tallest building without permission.
But instead of being arrested after his latest climb, he was hailed for his exploit and images of him beamed around China on state television surrounded by celebrating crowds.
Local officials had invited Robert to climb on the mountain in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, hoping the stunt would draw attention and tourism to the area.
Spiderman outfit
After he scaled the eastern city's famed Jin Mao tower in June while dressed in a spiderman costume, Robert spent five days in a Shanghai jail and was banned from China for five years.
It took two months to convince people in seven different Chinese government departments of the advantages of letting him back in to climb the 1,518-metre Tianmen Mountain, the Associated Press quoted him as saying before the weekend climb.
Robert has made a name for himself as an "urban climber", scaling some of the world's tallest skyscrapers including the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, Malaysia's Petronas Towers and Hong Kong's Far East Finance Center.
He has also climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Empire State Building in New York, all without any safety equipment.