Your grandpa ever tell you that when he was your age he had to walk to school through hurricane force winds, 23 feet of snow and a plague of locusts? Well, these kids actually have it worse.
The 15 children that live at Atule’er Village in southernmost Sichuan must climb up and down a set up 17 ladders placed against an 800 meter tall cliff in order to go to school, NetEase reports.
In the past, eight people have fallen off these terrifying ladders and died, yet these kids are forced to frequently risk their lives for the sake of their education.
72 households call the cliffside village their home, where cell phone coverage is crap and marriageable women are scarce. But right now, the villagers aren’t concerned about those problems, all they want is a damn road.
Well, ask publicly enough and ye shall receive. The villagers’ story has gone viral on Chinese social media with netizens from across the country throwing in their support. The local government is obviously feeling the pressure, visiting the village earlier this week and announcing that they will build a set of steel stairs leading up to the village, Sina reports.
You know, it’s nice to see that with enough public outrage, local officials can switch their focus from sightseeing elevators, glass-bottomed bridges and giant rock carvings, and actually do something a bit more constructive for a change.
It’s also inspiring to once again see what kids in rural China will do to attend school. In 2014, we reported on students in a Hunan village who had to climb up and down a 10-meter-long rope to go to classes each day.
[Images via NetEase]
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