Hong Kong's iconic bamboo scaffolding - endangered or there to stay?

It may one day vanish from the city's skyline amid a new rule requiring metal scaffolding for some public works projects, but the craft could live on in other forms.

- Magdalene Fung

HONG KONG - I'm walking out for lunch in my Wan Chai neighbourhood one sweaty May afternoon when I notice that the residential building next to my favourite dessert shop has suddenly become encased in bamboo scaffolding and mesh netting.

That architectural marvel must have been erected just days ago, as I hadn't noticed it previously.

Impressed, I stop to take a few pictures of the 16-storey building in all its bamboo scaffolding glory as curious passers-by shoot me quizzical glances.

Such bamboo scaffolding is a familiar sight throughout Hong Kong, having evolved into a cultural symbol of the city. It embodies not just the city's cultural identity but also its engineering ingenuity and the resilience of its people.

While it is sometimes also used in other parts of Asia like India, Japan and mainland China, only Hong Kong continues to rely primarily on such scaffolding for large-scale modern construction.

For decades, these bamboo structures have also been a fixture in Hong Kong television and cinema, which feature heroic police detectives scaling the scaffolding and leaping from pole to pole in hot pursuit of the baddies.

Now, however, Hong Kong's iconic bamboo scaffolding may soon be on its way out.

On March 17, the Development Bureau announced that half of all the city's public works contracts for new building projects would have to use metal scaffolding instead. Before the change took effect that month, bamboo scaffolding was used for all such works.

The bureau said the move was "aimed at improving safety by progressively adopting a wider use of metal scaffolding in public building works".

Bamboo scaffolding has "intrinsic weaknesses" as the material is highly combustible and prone to deterioration, it added.

The decision came amid a series of construction site accidents involving such scaffolding.