A vertigo-inducing video posted online in early April shows electrical workers in China taking a quick nap on a transmission tower, more than 50 metres up in the air.

The footage was captured on April 5 in Chenzhou, in Hunan province in southern China, according to the South China Morning Post. An electrician named Xiaojiang filmed several of his coworkers strapped into their safety harnesses and dozing on the metal beams of the tower during a break from installing a high-voltage line.

The video was picked up by several news sites in China.

In an interview with Beijing News, a state-run news outlet, Xiaojiang, who did not provide his last name, said he and his coworkers regularly work on transmission towers as tall as 100 metres. To save time climbing up and down, they often simply nap in the open air.

We don’t get much time to rest, just 10 to 20 minutes. We go up in the morning and usually come back down for lunch. Then we're up in the tower until evening. The towers are extremely tall and sometimes we don’t want to go all the way back down for our breaks because it is really tiring to climb up.

Xiaojiang added that the workers always strap themselves in with harnesses and safety ropes. "When you get used to it, you don’t get scared anymore,” he said.





A phone interview with Xiaojiang posted by Beijing News on April 8.

Xiaojiang told Beijing News that the workers' grueling schedule and constant trips to different construction sites leave them little time to go home. They sometimes see their families only during Chinese New Year.



The video sparked messages of sympathy from social media users, who urged the workers to take care of themselves. "The most important thing is that you get home safe and sound," one user wrote, according to Beijing News.