Cliff-side 'Spiderman' cleans up

Henan's Guo Youshun has collected more than 100 metric tons of litter in eight years

Guo Youshun is nicknamed "Spiderman" and, like the Spider-Man of comic book and Hollywood fame, the 58-year-old shoulders a big responsibility.

For eight years he has been picking up litter from a 30-meter-high cliff at Redstone Gorge, in the Yuntai Mountain scenic spot in Jiaozuo, Henan province, that plunges into a rapidly flowing river.

The cliff face has many sharp rocks but Guo, sliding up and down on a single rope, has collected more than 100 metric tons of garbage over the years.

The cliff is about 10 kilometers from Guo's home and the ride there on his electric bike takes him 25 minutes.

"I was born and raised at the foot of this mountain and started climbing it when I was little," Guo said. "Nobody could be more familiar with this mountain. I also feel very attached to it."

Further developing those early climbing skills, Guo started working as a plasterer at age 21. Climbing five to six floors every day to apply plaster to walls and ceilings made him bold and swift.

The tools of his current trade are a strong rope and an imported orange helmet that he stores in a safe because it is the most valuable thing he owns. A black trash bag and the rope tied around his waist, with the other end knotted around guardrail, Guo kicks himself off the top of the cliff and descends.

Two colleagues, He Xingfu and Sun Erzhong, are constantly by his side, pulling and guarding the rope to keep him safe. "My life is in their hands," Guo said.

Plastic water bottles, cigarette ends, napkins and fruit peelings are among the items Guo regularly encounters on his trips down the gorge. "I'm in charge of an area 300 meters wide, and I pick up all litter in sight," he said.

It takes more than 10 minutes to finish a round trip but Guo said it feels like hours, with the physical exertion leaving his back soaked in sweat. He is busiest on other people's weekends and public holidays, when more tourists mean more trash. Arriving at the cliff at 5 am, he sometimes collects trash until 8 pm.

At night, when the mountain is cleared of tourists, he starts to clean up the walkways wearing a small torch on his forehead before leaving the gorge carrying two large bags of trash, each weighing around 10 kilograms, on a bamboo pole.

Once, when Guo landed at the bottom of the gorge to collect trash, a rock fell from above and shattered into pieces just 2 meters away. Flying fragments of rock struck Guo's back and helmet hard, leaving him petrified. He said he burst into tears.

"I just kept crying and crying after they pulled me up, and I thought about quitting at that moment. Later, after I had a rest at home, I began to realize that a new cleaner wouldn't be able to bear the danger or adapt to the conditions quickly, so I just felt like I had to keep doing my job - and doing it well," Guo said.

Zhang Yangfei contributed to this story.