Chinese ‘Rooftopper’ Unwittingly Films His Death Plunging From Skyscraper

A man in China climbed to the top of a 62-story building not knowing that he would end up filming his own death.

On Nov. 8, 26-year-old Wu Yongning, known as “China’s first rooftopper,” climbed to the top of the Huayun International Centre in Changsha. Attempting to do a series of pull ups off the side of the building, Yongning lost his grip and plunged 45 feet to his death, the Daily Mail reports. Prior to attempting the pull up, the 26-year-old had placed a camera on another part of the building to record himself doing the stunt.

Yonging’s body was later discovered on a terrace by a window cleaner.

This wasn’t the first stunt that the rooftopper had attempted. After working as a background actor in various Chinese films, Yongning became a video blogger, filming himself performing various stunts. During his 10 months as a rooftopper, Yongning had performed one-arm handstands on top of buildings, walking on thin ledges dozens of stories high, and done pull ups on the edge of a 3,280-foot walkway.

The 26-year-old’s girlfriend, Jin Jin, told papers that Yongning had been planning on asking her parents for permission to marry her just days after the stunt. It is believed that the stunt would earn him the $12,000 bridal gift he was planning to bring his girlfriend’s family.

Police have ruled Yongning’s death as accidental.