Beijing Spiderman: Qu Yong, High-Rise Window Cleaner

Window cleaners in Beijing are called spidermen for a reason – they dangle from buildings and they’re intrepid (ahem) grimefighters. Qu Yong first learned the ropes 12 years ago. We asked him to share his high-altitude experiences with us.

What’s the tallest building you’ve cleaned?
I’ve worked on Guomao I and II, the CCTV Tower, Park Hyatt at Yintai, Pangu and others. The tallest was Yintai – it has 66 floors.

How do you get up there?
If a building doesn’t have the elevating car t, we use ropes. We set a device on top of the building; fastened to it is our safety rope, which we use to go down. We also wear a safety harness. Together with a Ulock, it’s pretty safe.

What happens if you have to relieve yourself while you’re up there?
We try to go to the washroom beforehand. Besides, you’re on the ground again after two or three hours.

What’s the worst weather?
Winter. Sometimes when it gets down to -4 or -5 degrees, we have to use alcohol and anti-icing fluid to clean the windows. When liquid freezes on the glass, it’s bad.

Do you wish you worked in a city with less pollution?
Not really. The nature of our job is cleaning, to make the city better and look nicer.

What’s the trickiest building you’ve ever cleaned?
At Pangu Hotel, the sticking-out part is impossible to clean if you are sent down from the top. So we asked the management for permission to go out from the inside.

Is one of your arms bigger than the other?
You don’t just use one arm. If you are cleaning the left side, it doesn’t make sense to use your right arm, right?

Do you have an uncontrollable nature to clean windows now?
A little bit. If I see a really dirty building, I will go in and ask whether they need any services.

Ever tried skydiving or bungee jumping?
That I haven’t tried yet. It’s not a priority for me. Although once I did get on a roller coaster [in Chaoyang Park]. I was so scared.

Do you believe eyes are the window of the soul?
When you talk like that, it gets too hard for me to understand. If you are saying you can tell good people from the bad ones, I don’t see anything like that. Bad people don’t have the word “bad” carved on their faces.

Click here to see the Beijinger August issue in full.

Photo: Sui