Tech employees in China work, eat and sleep at the office

China has long been known as a country with a surplus of cheap labour, butas startup firms in the midst of a technology boomgrasp for staff, skilledworkers are increasinglyburning the midnight oil and sleeping at the office in orderto meet deadlines.

Ma Zhenguo (below), a system engineer at a credit management company in Beijing,sleeps in the officeafter pulling an all-nighter.

Sleeping your wayto the top.

Some companies, like cloud-computing firm BaishanCloud,provide sleeping areasfor workers. Here,engineers Wu Binbin(on the bottom bunk)and Chen Huiyangtake an after-lunch nap in one of a dozen bunk beds installed in their office.

Dai Xiang,40, theco-founder of BaishanCloud,got his start pulling 72-hour shifts at a machinery company while catching naps on the floor.After a switch to the tech industry15 years ago,Dai hunghis own shingle in 2015, andone of his first orders of business was to installbunks.

"For technology, it's more of a brain activity. Workers need time to find inspiration," Dai said. "Our rest area isn't just for sleeping at night, the midday is also OK," he said in an interview with Reuters in April. This isZhang Kun, an employee at BaishanCloud, enjoying a periodof stillness during apre-lunchyoga session in the office.

The U.S. 'isn't as intense as China.'

"The pace of Chinese internet company growth is extremely fast. I've been to the U.S. and the competitive environment there isn't as intense as in China," said Cui Meng, general manager and co-founder of startup data company Goopal. Below, Mengsleepsat his desk in his company's Beijing office, and co-workerYu Xiaojianslurps a midnight snack.

Some tech sectoremployeeslive at the office.

While Goopal's programmerswork overtime every day, Cui said, they do eventually go home. That is not the case for everyone at recruitment and human resources firmDouMiYouPin.

Liu Zhanyu, who heads the company's "large clients"department, bunks down in a converted conference room MondaytoFriday to avoid the daily commute to his home in Beijing's far eastern suburbs. Here hewashesup after another long shift.

The cost of doing business takes its toll on families.

Workers say the potential payoff of working at a startup is worth the long hours, but it comes at acost.

Liu, at DouMiYouPin, said histhree-year-old misses him. "I get home and he lunges at me like a small wolf," said Liu, who sees his son only on weekends. "That makes me feel a bit guilty."

Below, Han Liqun, an HR manager atRenRen Credit Management, camps out at the office after finishing work early one morning.

'I don't have many opportunities to find a girlfriend.'

Programmer Xiang Shiyang, 28, works until 3 or 4 a.m. at least twice a week at RenRen, which uses big data to help firms manage financial risk, leaving little room to socialize. Despite the sacrifices, Xiangsaid he was content because, for now,he has "thewhole of hisbeing" investedinthecompany.