GUIZHOU, Oct 8 — A 43-year-old woman from China’s Guizhou province, dubbed the 'Chinese Spider-Woman', has gained widespread attention for her incredible skill in scaling cliffs over 100 metres high—without safety gear or gloves.
According to South China Morning Post Luo Dengpin, from the Ziyun Miao and Buyei autonomous county, is the only female practitioner of the ancient Miao tradition of bare-handed rock climbing, a practice linked to the region’s cliff burial customs.
The report said that her most notable feat involves climbing a 108-metre cliff, roughly the height of a 30-storey building, with ease, earning her a superhero-like nickname.
The origins of her skill lie in the Miao people’s tradition of burying their dead in high-altitude cliffs, a practice believed to allow the deceased to “watch over their ancestral homeland.”
This custom also conserved farmland and kept bodies safe from wildlife.
Luo is the last woman continuing this ancient art form, having learned to climb from her father at 15. Initially, she took up climbing to compete with boys and earn money by collecting medicinal herbs and bird droppings, which were once used as fertiliser.
“They said only boys could do this, but I believed men and women were equal, so I learned,” Luo said in a 2017 interview with the BBC.
In a recent interview, she recounted how foreign tourists were often astonished by her bare-handed climbs. “After doing it so many times, my hands became calloused,” she told Shandong TV.
Although the need to collect fertiliser has diminished, Luo now demonstrates her climbing skills for tourists, earning a modest income.
“My income isn’t high, but I take pride in being a spider woman,” she shared.
Her story has captivated many in China, with one commenter stating, “People in the past were truly capable of everything. Cliffs and steep mountains did not stop them.”
Another praised her, saying, “Women are just as capable as men, and true masters live among the people.”
