HK's "spidermen" scaffolders, a down-to-earth bunch

HONG KONG, Sep 21 (Reuters) The scaffolding shudders as Sam Chan strides along an eight-foot-long bamboo pole positioned 50 floors above Hong Kong's bustling streets.

Twisting and pulling hard at a black nylon cord, he secures another vertical bamboo pole into place, his leg hooked instinctively around a fixed point. He's been making good progress with his crew in building this lattice in the sky.

''It's just a regular job,'' he said, glancing out briefly at the skyline behind him and the tiny ships gliding across Victoria Harbour.

Chan, a 34-year-old high-school dropout, has one of Hong Kong's most vertiginous and challenging blue-collar jobs.

He's one of around 4,000 scaffolding workers who spend their working lives dangling outside some of the world's tallest buildings.

The peculiar skills and mental traits required of a scaffolder have kept the profession relatively exclusive and well paid, despite a recent construction slump.

Wages range from HK350 dollars per day for apprentices to US100 dollars for masters or ''sifu'' like Sam.

''(Scaffolding workers) have to possess physical endurance, courage ... and perseverance,'' says Chiu Kwok-leung, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union.

''Can you imagine? We build from the ground up ... every day we climb upwards unceasingly. We need great determination.'' HONG KONG TRADITION The craft, which dates back centuries to mainland China, is not exclusive to Hong Kong. It is practised across China and in countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Singapore.

But Hong Kong, with perhaps the world's greatest concentration of tall buildings, owes a special debt to the humble bamboo pole.

Without it, few buildings could be finished or renovated.

Whilst the West prefers metal scaffolding, the great heights of buildings in Hong Kong make this a cumbersome, impractical option.

By using light, cheap and abundant bamboo cut from southern China, small teams of scaffolders are able to sheathe entire buildings in a matter of weeks.

Major engineering and construction advances through the years have failed to diminish the city's reliance on the low-tech pole.

''(We) have played a major role in Hong Kong's overall prosperity,'' said Chiu.

Scaffolding instructor Tang Sung-yuen says the trade will continue to endure, even as the city modernises.

''In Hong Kong, we will always be needed,'' he said.

RISK But this has come at a price. In the past 6 years, there have been 20 deaths involving scaffolders, including one of Chiu's apprentices who fell three floors from a building in 2002.

Chiu says ''negative price competition'' among scaffolding firms in recent years has led to lapses in safety standards, with workers rushing jobs to cover their costs.

But Dexter Lee, who has been in the industry for 23 years and now runs his own scaffolding firm, says the trade is far less cavalier than it once was.

''In the old days, there was no such thing as safety, it's only now that (safety) measures are very strict,'' said Lee, wearing a black ''Spiderman 2'' T-shirt.

''If you wore a safety harness back then, people would laugh at you, they wanted to be macho,'' he said with a laugh.

Whilst many scaffolding workers take peril in their stride, their partners don't always feel the same.

''I still think it's dangerous, and I get a little worried,'' said Chiu's wife of 29 years, Fung-chun.

Like many of his down-to-earth working class contemporaries, Chiu brushes off such talk. But he does make one concession -- always remembering to wear a jade charm of Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, around his neck whilst up on the poles.

''It calms and steadies my heart,'' he said.

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