500 Chinese Students Cross Raging River Every Day to Get to School

In order to get to school, every day 500 students in a village of Yunnan, southwestern China have to fasten themselves to the cable with a metal carabiner and a rope and slide across the 200 metre wide canyon.

A bridge is to be built in this Chinese village where children are forced to cross a raging torrent on a steel cable to get to school. Nearly 500 children, from Maji village in Fugong town, Yunnan province, cross the most dangerous stretch of the Nujiang River each day.

They fasten themselves to the cable with a metal carabiner and a rope and slide across the 200 metre wide canyon.

The youngest pupil, A Qia, 4, has to go over by herself each day.

The villagers say that usually four-year-old children are taken by their parents, and begin to go by themselves from the age of five.

A Pu, five, still remember his feeling when he was stuck in the middle of the cable for nearly 20 minutes once, said: “I used to dream of having a bridge, but then I learned that my dream was too expensive!”

However local officials finally agreed to spend £35,000 on a bridge after a TV programme was made about the children’s dangerous daily journey.

Via Weirdasianews from Daily Times