Why Hong Kong uses bamboo scaffolding, and meet the spider-men who climb it

Cool article and nice to learn more about the history in Asia. Giant bamboo is great to work with. Myself, an American, and an Argentinian guy build a guadua (word for giant bamboo in Colombia at least) gazebo/shelter as part of a work exchange in Colombia. Fishmouth joints for days, literally. I loved seeing other high rise buildings being built in the area with guadua scaffolding and framing (from what I recall, may be a mix of materials do not remember). There are a lot of academic research articles with giant bamboo building techniques but this is, of course, very geographic dependent.

A simple, proven, flexible technology. Which employs plenty of workmen, with modest skill and regulation as the only barriers to entry. No inputs which might plausibly be monopolized. Nor exploitable economies of capital nor scale.

The sharks...er, I mean investment bankers, are doubtless looking for ways to replace this industry with one more suited to their "optimization".