After the public was shocked by images of children using ladders made from vines to climb down a cliff face to get to school, the local government has said it will install steel ladders to make the path safer, media reported Wednesday.
Atule'er village in Zhi'ermo, which has been dubbed the "cliff village," is home to 72 ethnic Yi families who have to risk climbing down a series of 17 ladders made from tree branches and vines precariously fixed to the steep cliff in order to leave the village.
"To safeguard the villagers' commute, we plan to construct a steel-bar ladder aside from the vine ladders,"said Awu Muniu, the Party chief of Zhi'ermo township, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, The Beijing News reported on Wednesday.
"The work of reinforcing the original 17 ladders started on August 27 - two of them have already been fixed - and they will be all finished in about a month," he noted.
Awu Muniu added that the project to install steel ladders was meant to start earlier in July but postponed due to landslides blocking the highway from Zhaojue county to Zhi'ermo.
The Global Times reported in May that there was public outcry over photos of children clambering up the cliff. Many urban residents expressed shock and disbelief that there are still people struggling for basic living standards and education in the world's second-largest economy.
The local government also dispatched several special teams to the village after extensive media coverage.
A poverty relief expert previously told the Global Times that the village should be relocated entirely, as this is the only long-term solution to its residents' poverty.
