If laughing in the face of adversity is a definition of bravery then there is no doubting Mark Major's courage.

Seven years after the New Zealander fell down a 9-meter deep hole on Beijing's bustling Guijie ("Ghost Street") and broke his back, he has turned his near-death experience into a tongue-in-cheek mobile game.

"I was interning in Beijing at the time. One night, I was walking to my local 7-Eleven on the corner of Ghost Street and all of a sudden I found myself free falling," recounted Major, via Skype from his home in Wellington, New Zealand.