Children In China Have To Make This Insanely Dangerous Climb If They Want To Go To School

May 27, 2016

Children as young as six from Atuler village in Sichuan province have to scale a huge mountain using rickety old ladders just to get to school.

chinese students climb mountain to get to school
Photo: ChinaDaily / VCG

Images of their terrifying descent went viral on the Chinese internet this week after they were published in a Beijing newspaper.

chinese students climb mountain to get to school
Photo: ChinaDaily / VCG

The photographs were taken by Chen Jie, an award-winning Beijing News photographer.

"There is no doubt I was shocked by the scene I saw in front of me," he wrote, adding that he hoped his photographs could help change the village's "painful reality."

chinese students climb mountain to get to school
Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Images

Chen took the trek three times while visiting the impoverished community.

"It is very dangerous. You have to be 100% careful," he told The Guardian. "If you have any kind of accident, you will fall straight into the abyss."

chinese students climb mountain to get to school
Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Images

The climb is so steep that a Chinese journalist who was also dispatched to the mountain, burst into tears as she attempted to reach Atuler village.

"Do we have to go this way?" Zhang Li said as her team made their way up the cliff. "I don’t want to go."

chinese students climb mountain to get to school
Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Images

The trek to school is now considered so gruelling that the children have been forced to board, only returning to their homes to see their families twice a month.

chinese students climb mountain to get to school
Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Images