For the children of Pili, a village high in the foothills between China, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, getting to school isn’t just difficult, according to a report by The Telegraph [1], it’s life-threatening.
“Dangerous! Careful, hold on to the rope…” the man in the video says. The journey is a total of 120 miles, 50 of which cannot be accessed by vehicles. At one point, the path narrows to just a few inches over a cliff around 1,000 feet above ground. Teachers escort the children on the dangerous trek four time a year, since the youngest students are 6 years old.
“There is only one way to get to the village, and you have to climb up in the mountains,” head teacher Su Qin told The Telegraph. “The village is completely cut off.”