Window Washer Wang Wants Work

Window washer Wang wants more work.

Economic Slump Leaves Tough Choices for Shanghai Job Seekers (Shanghai): For many job seekers in China, opportunities for work are best found in coastal cities such as Shanghai, where more than half its 24 million people come from other parts of the country. But as the cost of living continues to rise and the Chinese economy slows, some are considering returning home to look for work. Those who do, though, are also finding it hard to leave.

Tough times; Wang Congran left his home in Henan province when he was 15 and has lived mostly in Shanghai since then. He tried working in a factory for a while, but once he switched to window washing, he was hooked and now prefers a different sort of production line. “I am used to the work and if I had to do something else, if I had to work in a factory, I don’t think I could stand it,” Wang said, adding that the pay for factory work is not that good.

For the past year or so, he said, finding window washing jobs has become increasingly difficult. China has more than 200 million migrant workers, individuals like Wang who flock to the cities for jobs and opportunities.

In many ways though, Shanghai has become his home. Wang and his wife live in the city, and like many other migrant worker couples, their children live hundreds of kilometers away with their grandparents in their hometown. He said the slowdown has affected his wife’s work too. Before, she could work 12 hours a day and get overtime pay. Now, he said, the TV factory where she works has limited her to eight hours a day.

The couple would like to stay in the city, but soon they may have to make a choice. Their current residence, which has been an affordable place to live until now, is slated to be torn down. “It’s hard to say [what will come next],” he said. “If the house my wife and I are living in is torn down, we may have no place to stay. Shanghai is much too expensive,” Wang said.

White Knuckle Ride For Chinese Window Cleaners

Bad day at work for two Chinese window cleaners on China's second tallest building, the Shanghai World Financial Centre. The platform crashed into window of 100 Century Avenue Restaurant, shattering the glass. All employees on the 91st floor were then immediately evacuated. and luckily, the two workers on board at the time were not shaken off the platform and only suffered minor injuries.

Window cleaners take ride of their lives: Window cleaners endured a terrifying 15 minutes yesterday when the platform they were working from hundred of meters above ground began swinging violently. The pair were suspended between the 91st and 92nd floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center, the city’s second-tallest building at 492 meters, when their cradle slammed into a curtain wall, sending glass flying into the building and down to the ground.

The white-knuckle ride, which began at 9:15am, lasted about 15 minutes before the platform stopped swinging and could be lowered to a place where the cleaners were able to get off, Shanghai TV reported. The men have some bruises and one sprained his wrist, but they were otherwise unharmed by the ordeal, Yao Hui, a press officer with the building, told Shanghai Daily.

The men work for a cleaning company and were carrying out regular maintenance, he said. Some glass fell inside the building, so people on the 91st floor were evacuated, Yao said. While the cause of the incident is unknown, it was “confirmed that no ropes of the platform had snapped,” he said. A person inside the financial center managed to capture part of the incident on a cellphone and later uploaded the clip to the Internet.

Window cleaners take ride of their lives.

Window cleaners spin out of control on top of China’s second-tallest building: Two window cleaners working on China's second tallest building found themselves swinging violently almost 500 metres above the ground after their suspended platform spun out of control. The incident happened this morning at the Shanghai World Financial Centre, a 101-storey, 492 metre-tall skyscraper. The video, shot from the 100th floor restaurant, shows the hanging platform out of control repeatedly smashing into the glass walls at speed, causing loud thumping noises.

"I'm worried for them," a nearby spectator can be heard saying in English. Just before the video ends, a small fragment can be seen falling from the base of the platform as it is damaged by the impacts. The Shanghai Daily News reports that the hanging platform smashed through the curtain wall, and the two workers were treated in hospital with minor bruises. It is thought strong winds were the cause of the incident, but an investigation is underway.

Window Cleaning The World’s Tallest Building

Daring window washers clean world's tallest building.

Window-cleaning the world’s tallest building: Dubai, United Arab Emirates — It’s hard work cleaning the windows of the world’s tallest building, but somebody has to do it. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is covered in 24,000 panes of glass. The workers who clean them start at the 160th floor and work their way down. That’s more than 2,700 feet. Before they start their work, they check and double-check their harnesses and ropes. They also measure wind speed because a gust of wind could be dangerous. It takes three months to clean every window, and then crews start all over again.

Meanwhile in China..

Climbing duo Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov scaled the 632 metre building without any ropes.

Shanghai Tower skywalkers climb second tallest building in world without safety equipment: Two Russian climbers filmed themselves defying gravity (and death) by climbing the world’s second tallest building without any ropes or climbing gear. Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov used head cameras to film themselves breaking into and climbing the still unfinished Shanghai Tower in China, as they scaled the 632m structure without any safety gear.

Their cameras show vertigo-inducing panoramas of Shanghai hundreds of metres below throughout their ascent. The pair even passed clouds on their journey to the top. The Tower will be one of the tallest buildings in the world upon its completion, second only to the 830 metre Burj Khalifa in the UAE, the tallest man-made structure in the world. When both climbers reach the top, their head-cams show them peering down into the abyss below. Makhorov told Yahoo! News: "We had to wait for hours for the clouds to part but it was well worth the wait, the view was like something from an aircraft window. "As soon as we saw a gap in the clouds were climbed right to the top of the crane and were able to get some great shots of the city below."

Don't look down! Vadim Makhorov sits in a cage above the Shanghai Tower, with the city sprawled more than 2,000 feet beneath him.

Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov captured these shots from a height that would make most people sick.

Life On The Up + Window Cleaners Stories

Cheng Jian Wen, one of the window cleaners who keep the Shanghai World Financial Centre sparkling.

Life on the Up, short film about the window cleaners of the Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC) - Dangling from great heights, a Shanghai window cleaner's story. This short film by Stephen Wright captures the experiences of a window cleaner who works on tall buildings in Shanghai. 30 year-old Cheng Jian Wen has worked on tall buildings for four years since coming to Shanghai. He took this job as he wants his children to succeed and for his wife to not live a tough life. Since filming of 'Life on the Up', Cheng Jian Wen has returned to his hometown to pursue his dream of opening his own shop.

Bryan Matthews in the "StartUp Smart" awards for 2013.

Rope Pro High Access Services

Founders: Bryan Matthews (Above) and Greg Matthews

Revenue: $655,000

Started: 2009

Head Office: Victoria

Employees: 6

Industry: Property and business services

Few people would ever consider starting a high rise ropes business, let alone be able to brave the sheer heights faced daily, but Bryan Matthews was inspired by his own passion for rock climbing. “I enjoyed rock climbing as a hobby and became interested in completing difficult tasks in an unusual environment. The challenge drives my team as well as the variety of work we do,” Bryan says.

The company was only founded in 2009, but it offers 15 years of combined experience in a wide range of industries such as height safety and twin-rope access, aerial ropeway maintenance and rescue and high angle rescue. It offers a variety of services such as rigging work, structural inspection and maintenance of ropes and high rise window cleaning. The Rope Pro team can also abseil from buildings and bridges to access difficult environments.

The company cost $5,000 to start and the founders own 50% of the company. Bryan says Rope Pro is distinguished from the rest of the market because they do not rely on costly overheads such as eliminating scaffolding, cranes and elevated work platforms. Bryan says the greatest challenge in establishing the business was getting the name out to potential clients. From this experience he says he learnt the importance of hard work. “Work hard, do what you say you’re going to do, be honest and set a high standard of professionalism,” he says.

He says the name is now recognised throughout the rope access industry “for professionalism, safety, honesty and reliability”, but it’s the company’s growth rate which is most remarkable. “We have doubled our gross income every year since we have started and continue to be growing as a company in general,” Bryan says.

Rob Franks stopped a shoplifter at Pets at Home in Poole and was bitten on the ar.

Have-a-go hero bitten by shoplifter -twice: A have-a-go hero window cleaner who stepped in to help stunned staff at a Poole pet store was bitten twice... by a shoplifter. Brave Rob Franks and his wife, Carla, were visiting Pets at Home in Broadstone Way, when they noticed staff trying to detain a man.

As the thief bolted Rob sprang into action, giving chase on to the main road. Rob, aged 34, explained: “I managed to rugby tackle the guy to the ground and hold him there. “He was trying to throw punches but nothing connected. Then he bit me twice. “A shop assistant chased him with me. The shoplifter was threatening both of us and when he bit me he screamed ‘I’ve got hepatitis’.”

 Married dad-of-two Rob, of Rosemary Road, Poole, has since been given the all-clear from doctors. “After he bit me I let go,” he told the Daily Echo. “But I thought, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ got up and chased after him again.” With the help of the shop worker Rob cornered the suspect until police arrived. However, this isn’t the first time Rob has intervened against lawbreakers. Once, at another Poole pet shop in 2011, he ordered a shoplifter to put back his ill-gotten gains.

Another time, in July 2007, Rob confronted a pair of youths in Poole’s Dolphin Shopping Centre after spotting them stealing from Wilkinsons. “People can knock me all day long for stepping-in but I’d do it again,” he said. “We work so hard for the little bit we do get. “Why should somebody else be able to go into a shop, take something that isn’t theirs and think they can get away with it? “It is not right. It is not right at all. I would do what I did again in a heartbeat.”

After last Tuesday afternoon’s drama, Rob and Carla were given a free hamster cage – the item they’d originally gone to buy for their kids – by thankful Pets at Home bosses. l Anthony Cole, aged 32, from Poole, admitted theft from a shop, ABH and common assault at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. He was remanded in custody until sentencing at crown court next month.

More World Window Cleaning Pictures

Workers clean the windows of a newly built office building in Taiyuan, Shanxi province. Click to enlarge.

A window cleaner washes the window of the athletes' hotel in Istanbul. Click to enlarge.

Sailors clean windows for the watchstanders inside the Flag Bridge of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) looking for surface and air contacts during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Click to enlarge.

Employees clean the windows of the main building of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Click to enlarge.

Window cleaners stand on a platform hanging from the front of the CCTV (China Central Television) building on a sunny day in central Beijing. Click to enlarge.

A worker cleans the windows of a hotel building in downtown Sofia. Click to enlarge.

A cleaner washes the glass windows of a building in Brasilia. Click to enlarge.

A worker cleans the windows of an apartment block on a haze day in central Beijing. Click to enlarge.

Cleaners watch an Air China plane land as they sit atop the roof of the Beijing Capital International Airport's train station. Click to enlarge.

A worker cleans the windows of an office building in Tokyo. Click to enlarge.

Workers clean windows at a building in downtown Buenos Aires. Click to enlarge.

A worker cleans the windows of a hotel in central Mexico City. Click to enlarge.

People watch as a window cleaner works outside the 14th floor at the Shard in London. Click to enlarge.

Workers clean the windows of a building in Quito. Click to enlarge.

Kevin was forced to sell his original window-cleaning company at a loss in 2003 to devote himself to Huntley and Carr’s forthcoming trial and the subsequent Bichard Inquiry into Britain’s child-protection procedures. The parents of Holly Wells speak out a decade after she was murdered. The family survived on Nicola’s salary as a legal secretary, by re-mortgaging their house and by accepting a £6,000 charity hand-out to pay their bills. For a man with a work ethic as powerful as Kevin’s it was a  difficult time. Says Kevin: ‘I got going again, I bought some rounds off other window cleaners, I did a lot of door-knocking and leafleting, but we went from being comfortable to being financially stretched for a while. You don’t think about it for days, weeks, months, but then there comes a time when you realise you have to put food on the table.

The cost of repairing broken window blinds at London’s iconic City Hall, which houses the offices of Mayor Boris Johnson, is set to top £730,000. The glass-clad building on the South Bank of the Thames – which was designed by architect  Norman Foster and is one of the capital’s landmarks – has suffered from defective blinds for years, hampering efforts to clean its windows. The bulk of the costs of the repairs are being met under an insurance policy. But the Greater London Authority (GLA) must contribute almost £100,000 in taxpayers’ money – under an excess clause in the policy and for work that it does not cover.

Window washers from Citywide Building Services, Inc. clean the glass on the Omni Dallas Hotel on July 16, 2012. Click to enlarge.

A window that generates electricity simply through its very existence has long been the dream of many working on photovoltaic research. Now, thanks to researchers at University of California, Los Angeles, we are one step closer. Using a new polymer solar cell prototype, they’ve been able to craft a cell that converts infrared light into electrical energy with a conversion efficiency of four percent at 66 percent transparency. In other words, you can see through it and it still generates current. Imagine for a moment if Google Glass or some device developed from it utilized this kind of technology? You’d have a self-charging heads-up display.

Divergent Dances for Windows and Walls: Aerial artistry. As they checked out the Bata’s two-tiered roof, Prendergast, an engineer, noticed a diagram on the back of a locked hatch that confirmed the existence of several secure window-washer points, thus saving the cost of installing a special gantry. Divergent Dances for Windows and Walls is presented July 24-28 July at the Bata Shoe Museum, 327 Bloor St. W.. Toronto.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin talks on the phone as he wears Google's new Internet-connected glasses in San Francisco, Google is making prototypes of the device, known as Project Glass, available to test.

A window washer repels a downtown building while cleaning the windows, in Atlanta. Click to enlarge.

Guy from Fish Window Cleaning Co. using a 30-foot pole to wash windows on the Fifth Ave. firehouse. Ann Arbor.

A worker cleans the window of an office building in Taiyuan, Shanxi province. Click to enlarge.

As Treasury minister David Gauke delighted crowds on Newsnight with his sermon on the “morals” of paying cash-in-hand, I just paid Perry, my window cleaner, £4 this morning without so much as a request to see his receipts for chamois leather.

Urban-friendly Target to open Wednesday in downtown Seattle. Window washer Scott Lund gets the windows ready for the opening of CityTarget. Unlike regular Targets, it uses window mannequins to showcase apparel and will play background music.

A man cleaning a window at an entrance of the headquarters of Japan's top advertising agency Dentsu. The company announced on July 12 a plan to buy British-based media group Aegis for 3.16 billion pounds (4.89 billion), in Tokyo. A high yen, long seen as debilitating Japan's exporters, has pushed Japan Inc to buy up foreign firms and mines at a record pace as businesses look to overseas markets for growth potential.

Flying, by Sachigusa Yasuda: Afraid of heights? Then don't spend too long on this page. This is not a gentle bird's-eye panorama of Manhattan, or even the much-imitated "tourist up the Empire State Building" snapshot. This is New York as you won't have seen it before: a dizzying vista that makes you feel less like you're flying and more like you're about to plummet to the ground. It's the viewpoint of Spider-Man, a fearless window cleaner or, more unsettlingly, someone contemplating suicide.

Sachigusa Yasuda – Tokyo-born but now based in New York – has stitched together hundreds of images taken from the tops of skyscrapers. In the name of art, she hung out of top-floor windows and climbed on to roofs in cities across the world, from Singapore and Seoul to Hamburg.

The result is a montage of multiple viewpoints – exaggerated, unreal urban perspectives anchored from a single point – that would be impossible to take in with any single camera, let alone the naked eye. Her distorted skylines combine a vertiginous drop down to the ground, which hits you smack between the eyes, with a sweeping panorama of miles of surrounding land, so vast that it takes in even the Earth's curvature. It's this that gives her work its uneasy, nausea-inducing quality: you feel as if you might either tumble to the ground or soar off to the horizon.

The photographs may be disorienting, but they are also peaceful. The lofty perspective suggests the quiet that comes with being so high up, above the wail of sirens. This intense urbanness will make you either book a flight to New York, or run for the hills.

Cleaning The Top Of The World - Photos

What It Looks Like to Clean the Top of the World: The world's building are growing, and so are the number of cleaners who do death-defying tricks just to keep the windows clean. Below, photos of cleaners the world over. 

Window washers work on a building near a ferris wheel in Tokyo's Odaiba entertainment and shopping district. Over the "golden week" holidays Tokyo's office buildings emptied out as many people took advantage of the good weather to enjoy themselves.

Migrant laborers wash a roof near The Bund on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. China aims to grow its economy by about 7.5 percent in 2012 and sees inflation running at around 4 percent for the year, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday as the country kicks off its annual parliament meetings.

A worker cleans the windows of an apartment block in central Beijing. China's main real estate regulator reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining current restrictions on property sales on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news service reported, as Beijing continues to resist calls for wider easing to offset a slowing economy.

Window cleaners work at an office building at Berlin's Kurfuerstendamm shopping mall.

Workers clean the exterior of the "Sun Valley" at the 2010 World Expo site in Shanghai.