Crane drivers are a special breed of heavy equipment operators. In addition to being technically skilled and accurate, they must be content to spend most of their day alone encased in a small closed box. For Pan, except for the voice from the walkie-talkie, he has only the clouds and birds as company.

Pan climbs a vertical steel ladder to the tower crane platform, in Changsha, Central China's Hunan province, Jan 21, 2015.[Photo/IC]