China village cuts children’s 3-hour cliff trek to school to just 30 minutes
Children in Nizhuhe village, China, now have a 30-minute commute to school thanks to new cliffside elevators and cable cars. This infrastructure replaces a dangerous three-hour trek along an 800-metre cliff.
Why it matters
The project demonstrates how targeted infrastructure investment can significantly improve safety and access to education in remote, mountainous regions.
For years, going to school was a daily test of endurance for children living in Nizhuhe village in southwest China. Their route to the classroom involved steep mountain paths, narrow trails and an exhausting climb along the side of an 800-metre cliff. The journey could take nearly three hours, with children leaving home before sunrise and returning tired after a full day at school.Today, the same journey takes about 30 minutes, thanks to a combination of a shuttle bus, two cliffside elevators and a cable car system. The unusual transport network has turned what was once described as the most dangerous school commute into a safer and more predictable trip for students living in the remote mountain village.Nizhuhe village is located in Puli township in Xuanwei city, Yunnan province, near the border with Guizhou province.
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