A snowboarder was left danging in the air from a ski lift after his rucksack became tangled in the metal bars.

Heart-stopping footage shows the unnamed man clinging to the back of his seat on a moving cable car at the Beidahu Ski Resort, in Jilin Province, north-eastern China on January 1.

He was reportedly left hanging off the moving open chair dozens of feet above the ground after some straps were tangled up in the device when he went to climb off, and he was dragged all the way around and started to head back downhill.

Shocked skiers watched in horror as he barely managed to hold onto the seat by his fingers while being pulled down by the snowboard strapped onto his feet.

Incredibly, he apparently managed to hold on until the ski lift could be reversed bringing him back to the climb-off point at the top of the mountain when the device went into reverse.

Staff from the resort said they had not been aware of the incident, despite footage clearly showing that it was going backwards in order to rescue the man.

So far, there have been no reports of similar accidents happening at the resort.