World’s deadliest school run made safer by mountain top steel staircase

The remote Atuler village in China’s Sichuan province has had a steel staircase installed to help change the lives of the people who live in the isolated mountain region.

The small village made the headlines last year as its school run was dubbed ‘the world’s scariest’, with children carrying backpacks forced to scale the 800 metre rock face over bare rocks to attend class.

The astonishing video from CCTV below shows the perilous three hour ascent that schoolchildren and other villagers had to make using the rickety bamboo ladder.

Such was the toll of making the trip that the children had been forced to board, being only able to visit their mountaintop homes twice a month.

Construction of the steel staircase began in August last year following the raising of 1 million yuan funding after photos of the plight of the school children made international headlines.

The installation of the steel staircase means that the arduous trip is now much safer and only takes 30 minutes, with enough width for two people to pass at the same time.

It is hoped that the village’s fame and breathtaking landscape could see it become a top tourist destination.

Local media have reported a tourist company in provincial capital Chengdu, is to partner with the Chinese government who are to invest 300 million yuan (£34M) to develop the area and help alleviate poverty amongst its people.

As the village has no road network to connect the upland village and the low-lying towns, its people depend on subsistence farming of potatoes, walnuts and chilli peppers. Efforts to integrate the community into modern China have previously been made but relocation has been a major stumbling block.

A resident of the village told CCTV news:  “Before, it was dangerous. Now we have the stairs, so we are all relieved, the old and the young. The journey is safer and we are confident in shaking off poverty.”
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