China’s ‘Spiderman’ Picking Trash over the Abyss
‘The Spidermen’ are a team of abseiling litter-pickers who work along the sides of Tianmen mountain in central China
Dangling 400 metres (1,300 feet) over a void, suspended only by a cord, Yang Feiyue is not your average litter-picker.
The 48-year-old’s job is to abseil down cliffs on central China’s Tianmen mountain — an area famed for its natural beauty but plagued by plastic and other waste.
“Am I afraid?” says Yang as he steps over a guardrail. “No, I’m used to it.”
Local media call Yang and his team “the Spidermen”, after the skyscraper-scaling superhero, and it’s easy to see why.
The job is physically demanding: one cleaner said that when he started, he could barely use his hands to eat after a day’s work
Yang descends and hangs off the steep cliff face, patiently picking up rubbish thrown off the side by tourists.
His colleagues at the top hold firmly onto his rope, attached to hooks in the rock. When he is finished, he is hauled up via a system of pullies.
Yang’s rubbish bag is full of water bottles, packaging, and tissues.
“When it rains, we get single-use ponchos — and since the pandemic, we get face masks as well,” he explains.
Yang’s team was created in 2010 by the Tianmen mountain management to deal with waste accumulating on its sides, an unfortunately common occurrence at Chinese beauty spots.
Numerous stands selling food and drinks at tourist attractions are a major source of packaging that sometimes ends up being thrown on the ground — or off a cliff.
Campaigns in schools and the media have boosted people’s environmental consciousness, along with an increase in recycling bins in public spaces.
The litter-pickers abseil down the cliff face, their colleagues anchoring them at the top. They are hauled back up via a system of pullies when they finish
“In the last 10 years, we’ve seen less and less littering,” says Ding Yunjuan, vice-director of marketing for the mountain.
“Before, our ‘Spidermen’ collected five tons of litter a year. Tourists nowadays are more civilized.”
Even so, Yang and his colleagues collected two tons in 2020 — despite the fact that the coronavirus pandemic significantly reduced visitor numbers.
Unsurprisingly, the job is physically demanding.
Food and drink stands at tourist attractions are a major source of the plastic waste often found at Chinese tourist spots
“At first, my hands were incredibly painful after a day’s work — I could barely use my chopsticks to eat. But it’s a lot better now!” laughs Yang.
He says he will keep abseiling down the mountainside as long as it is necessary.
While Yang admits that he enjoys the nickname ‘Spiderman’, his real motive is the preservation of the mountain.
“We’re acting for the beauty of the site,” he said. “So I don’t mind working away at it!”
PHOTOS BY WANG ZHAO/afp