A muscular Chinese woman wearing a cap standing on a bamboo scaffolding as she ties it together, with trees in the background. Photograph by Lam Yik Fei, from: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/world/asia/hongkong-bamboo-scaffolding.html

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   John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Saturday, 24-May-2025 23:01:53 JST John Carlos Baez

   One of the things I love about Hong Kong is the use of bamboo rather than metal scaffolding for the construction of buildings. You see elaborate bamboo scaffolds towering into the sky.

   Here's a story about this ancient craft, what's happening to it today, and one of the few women who practices it:

   https://archive.is/VqeXK

   Lots of great pictures!

   "The city is one of the last bastions of an art — and later industry — that was first depicted in scroll paintings from the Han dynasty around 2,000 years ago, and it has thrived in bamboo-rich regions in China. But in the past two decades, the rest of China pivoted toward metal amid an overproduction of steel.

   Lattices of bamboo poles bound together by intricate knots regularly rise across the city to build and renovate apartment blocks and commercial skyscrapers that can be dozens of stories high.

   Advocates of the material, including Ms. Pak, say it is lighter and cheaper than metal to transport and carry in Hong Kong’s tight urban spaces. Builders particularly favor the material when erecting platforms that support workers who patch up building exteriors and replace old pipes and window sills."