The amazing scaffolding trick

Who knew bamboo was so darn strong?  Until living in Hong Kong I never had an understanding of the strength of bamboo.  In Asia bamboo is used for a lot of things; one of the more impressive is its use as scaffolding.  Sure, I'd seen dozens of buildings in Hong Kong cocooned with bamboo and green or white mesh, but I never really paid attention until one day. . .

Our school and eight story apartment building were both scheduled for painting.  This meant that in the span of two days these two structures (the HS and Scenic View) would be swaddled in gauze.  I spent a good part of both days simply watching the dozens of men build the structure from the bottom up.  It made me think of an army of ants building a grid from lincoln logs.  Each bamboo stick varied from 5 - 2 inches in diameter with a length of maybe 4 - 5 yards.  Bamboo isn't heavy, but it can't be that easy to balance!  These guys made it look easy, though.  Place the bamboo either vertically or horizontally, depending on the need, then bind it together with a plastic strap by winding it around several times every which way and then tying it off.  No zip-ties here!  One man would hand another man bamboo who would hand it over or up or whatever until the right guy got it, placed it, and secured it.  He would then move to the next space and do the same.

This process was impressive enough in the 3-story courtyard of the school at a distance.  But what really amazed me was watching these men seemingly climb up the outside of the wall below our 7-story balcony.  At 4:30 my son called me out to the balcony, "Look, Mom, they are building the scaffolding just below us."  Up, up, up, they built.  First we could only see the tops of their heads one or two floors below us.  Maybe 6 or 7 guys were visible.  No securing ropes or hardhats, just monkey-men.  Men straddled a single upward reaching expanse of bamboo which was accumulating itself higher and higher each moment, secured to the outside of the building every now and then by some drilled attachment.  By supper time the men's heads were even with our balcony, and we watched them as we ate our tacos.  It was a quite unusual dinner entertainment.  A man posed for my picture, smiling and flashing a peace sign before turning into shoes by dessert.  And so it continued through the afternoon until they had surrounded us entirely to the 8th floor.

The next day the men swaddled us in gauze.  And now we are cocooned, awaiting our metamorphosis.