Xu Pengcheng looks over his shoulder and, after confirming the coast is clear, helps his crew of urban adventurers climb through the broken window of an abandoned building.

Long popular in the West, urban exploration, or "urbex" for short, sees city-dwelling thrill-seekers explore dilapidated, closed-off buildings and areas — often skirting the law in the process.

And it is growing in popularity in China, where a yearslong property sector crisis has left many cities dotted with empty buildings.