Coming home no longer means hanging by a thread

On Nov 19, two days before the start of the Yi ethnic group's weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, students from a remote village in Sichuan province returned home.

But unlike previous years, they had a much safer way of getting there - climbing a ladder made of steel instead of the rickety old one made of rattan.

"The steel ladder has reduced the time it takes to return home by more than an hour. It's much safer, and I no longer feel scared," says 6-year-old student Mose Niuniu.

He is one of 15 children from Atuleer village in the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture who used to rely on an 800-meter zigzag network of rattan ladders with no railings to travel to and from boarding school every two weeks.

The village lies atop a cliff more than 1,400 meters above sea level. Its only link to the outside world is the ladder.

The rattan structure - a chain of 17 small ladders tied together without any railings or other safety features - had been used by villagers for years. They relied on them to reach the nearest market several kilometers away once a week to sell their peppers and walnuts and buy necessities.

According to Song Ming, an information officer for the prefecture government, there are many rattan structures in his area, but the one leading to Atuleer was the most dangerous.

Song has scaled such ladders before, but when he used the one to Atuleer in August, he said he was terrified.

"Tragedies happened from time to time. This year, a villager in his 40s died after falling off the ladder," says Er Dijiang, head of Atuleer village.

Photos published by a Beijing newspaper in May of village children creeping up the cliff on the flimsy ladders sparked a public outcry and prompted Liangshan officials to address the issue.

It was impossible to relocate the villagers, who said they didn't want to leave their time-honored habitat. So Lin Shucheng, the prefecture's Party chief, promised to replace the rattan with steel.

The steel ladder, complete with handrails, was built at a cost of 1 million yuan ($150,000; 140,000 euros; 120,000), with the local governments splitting the cost.

huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/25/2016 page15)