Last week one of the hottest stories flying around the inter-webs was about a village perched on top of a mountain in China where the children have to climb an 800-foot cliff to get to and from school at the bottom of the mountain.
Here’s how The Guardian reported the story:
To attend class, backpack-carrying pupils from Atuler village in Sichuan province must take on an 800-metre rock face, scrambling down rickety ladders and clawing their way over bare rocks as they go.
Images of their terrifying and potentially deadly 90-minute descent went viral on the Chinese internet this week after they were published in a Beijing newspaper.
Numerous media outlets (CNN, The Washington Post) published the photos and excerpts of a video news report report about the village.
But they only show glimpses of the story. The full-length video report can be seen here in its entirety: (Chinese with English subtitles):
https://youtu.be/ypsEhzjzIhk
(email readers: go here to see the video)
Reports are that local government officials have been so embarrassed by the domestic and international attention that they have promised to do something:
Uproar over the students’ hair-raising commute brought promises of government action. The region’s Communist party secretary said a steel staircase would be built to connect the deprived hamlet with the outside world while a permanent solution was found.
Jike Jinsong, another official, said authorities did not have sufficient money to build a road between Atuler and the outside world but warned it was also not feasible to relocate the community since its residents would lose their land.
A third local politician has suggested turning the area into a tourist attraction.
The power of face can be amazing.
Image credit: news.163.com
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