Village Where Children Climb 800 Meter Cliffside Ladder May Get Stairs

We have all heard from old schoolers at some point about how soft and spoiled we are. How they use to walk 15 miles to school uphill and in the snow, BOTH WAYS, sometimes during an earthquake! These kids take their education so seriously, they are forced to participate daily in an extreme sport just to get to school!

BEIJING — A village in China's mountainous west where schoolchildren must climb an 800-meter (2,625-foot)-high bamboo ladder secured to a sheer cliff face may get a set of steel stairs to improve safety. The ladder is the only access to the village of Atuleer to which the children return every two weeks from the school at which they board. The 72 families who live there are members of the Yi minority group and subsist mainly by farming potatoes, walnuts and chili peppers.

A news release Friday from the Liangshan prefectural government that oversees the county said a set of stairs would be built as a stop-gap measure while officials consider a longer-term solution. "The most important issue at hand is to solve the transport issue. That will allow us to make larger-scale plans about opening up the economy and looking for opportunities in tourism," county Communist Party Secretary General Jikejingsong was quoted as saying in the news release.

So next time your kids complain about taking the bus to school, or walking 8 blocks, remind them that some children are literally risking their very life with every step just to receive a well deserved and appreciated education.

a reply to: AmericanRealist

Wow...you have got to be kidding me...Whoever makes Tesla vehicles or own Virgin Airlines could easily afford a safer way for these kids to get to class...how about moving the friggin school?

Wimps, it's not even snowing.

a reply to: chrismarco

I find it interesting that it says they may get stairs, not they WILL get stairs. The tow wants to open itself to tourism. I hope they find some solution, I would love to try the chili peppers they grow in those mountains. I imagine they taste great and burn well too.

There are kids in Mongolia and Tibet that also have to trek for weeks across frozen thundra and dangerous mountain passes to get to a school they board in for the season. Life is still a very hard thing even for an education for many of the humans of Earth today.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

ahhh, I see you are more of a fan of this kind of extreme endeavors??

I've apparently become so complacent living in the 21st century, I forget not everybody does.

Or spend the cash to move the school to somewhere less dangerous?

Did it mention how many kids have died on the path? Snowflakes!

Please....in the day...in Nebraska we jogged to the big farm aka school in the pre dawn up hill both ways. That was the easy part...the indians could really Xuck up your day.
Hi Ya, Hi Ya, Hi Ya

a reply to: AmericanRealist

Well, at least they don't need gym class.
And, I walked uphill both ways to school and back home, literally. It was a massive hill to get to school the 'quick' way or go around for the long way.

Why don't they simply move the school to a safer location? It would probably be cheaper and more beneficial to just build a new school than build a new 'route' which would need yearly maintenance and such.

originally posted by: JaMeDoIt
Please....in the day...in Nebraska we jogged to the big farm aka school in the pre dawn up hill both ways. That was the easy part...the indians could really Xuck up your day.
Hi Ya, Hi Ya, Hi Ya

Same here in Georgia. But I am Native American . Were you speaking of Eastern Indians ?