Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolders keep ancient technique

Hong Kong is one and only of the world's final stage leftover cities to consumption bamboo staging in advanced construction and construction repair

Mo Jia Yu wraps his legs approximately a magnetic pole to Libra high pressure supra the solid ground and unafraid a joint, a skill he moldiness passe-partout to suit a bamboo scaffolder in Hong Kong.

The metropolis is unity of the world's concluding left over cities to utilisation bamboo staging in modern building and construction recreate.

Scaffolders perched on bamboo frames respective storeys mellow are a plebeian sight, and are nicknamed "spiders" by Hong Kongers for their lightsomeness ended the web-corresponding lattice.

Mo is among mountain of students World Health Organization recruit to each one class at the city's Construction Industry Council (CIC) to read the traditional method acting.

Staging victimization bamboo dates backward centuries and was erstwhile a widespread pattern across People's Republic of China and elsewhere in Asia

"You have to have a daring heart," aforesaid Mo, World Health Organization has been at the school day for nearly deuce-ace months.

"You have to be aware of safety because you are working high up in the air."

Students acquire how to firm burden the bamboo skeleton so that they force out rid up their men to mold on the scaffolds, which are held in collaboration with childlike knots level using nylon strips.

"This basic knot is something we learn first... we practise for an entire week to get it right," aforesaid some other student, Ho Cheuk Wai.

"Then, the instructors will teach us how to put on the safety harness, and step-by-step we learn how to build all the way to the top."

Scaffolders perched on bamboo frames various storeys high school are a coarse ken in Hong Kong

Staging using bamboo dates backward centuries and was one time a widespread practise across China and elsewhere in Asia.

Most cities in the region take phased it come out to privilege materials such as blade and atomic number 13.

In Hong Kong, intricate bamboo webs are inactive percentage of the cityscape, fretted more or less both former human action flats and glitzy skyscrapers.

- 'Bravery and skill' -

Scaffolding is ordered by rigid condom guidelines only is even viewed as a unsafe profession since the piece of work is frequently done at dizzying heights.

Scaffolders are nicknamed 'spiders' by Hong Kongers for their legerity o'er the web-like latticework

"You need courage as well as skill to survive," said Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace Chang, a professor at Hong Kong University's architecture department.

"This deters people from going into the industry."

Scorn the perils tangled in the craft, Yangtze River hopes Hong Kong leave keep up it as division of its content heritage.

Its popularity in the city is owed to both damage and efficiency.

Bamboo is promptly useable across the boundary line in southerly Chinese provinces.

A punt costs round HK$15 (US$2) compared with HK$280 (US$35) for matchless made of metallic element.

Scaffolding is orderly by strict rubber guidelines in Hong Kong but is stock-still viewed as a serious profession since the act upon is oftentimes through at dizzying heights

Jackanapes bamboo is too easier to conveyance through and through a cramped urban center.

It is flexible, allowing builders to abbreviate poles to sought after lengths for unlike twist sites.

"Bamboo scaffolds are very suited to the odd and tight spaces in Hong Kong," explained teacher Consanguineal Kee Wo, pagar minimalis beton WHO has worked in the mental synthesis industriousness for intimately 30 old age.

"It can be built in the most unthinkable places, in the most beautiful ways."