Navigating the Cliffs
Almost every day at 6:00 a.m., fourth-grader Xiao Rui leaves home for Lijiashan Village Primary School. She takes a narrow path following the ridge of a mountain. The trip usually takes more than an hour.
The village is located at the foot of mountains in Ludian County, Zhaotong City of Yunnan Province. From a distance, the most eye-catching structure is a big yellow house – the village’s primary school. Completed in 2010, it has become the centerpiece of the settlement.
On August 3, 2014, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake rocked the county and Lijiashan was one of the villages that suffered most. Fortunately, the school survived the catastrophe. Everything slowly shifted back to normal.
“Some students live nearby, but the rest are from neighboring villages as far as six kilometers away,” explains Song Zhengbo, the principal. “Their homes are scattered around – some behind a tall, faraway mountain, and some across a deep valley. The school provides lunch, but before and after school, more than 100 students have to hike the sheer cliffs to commute between school and home.”
In recent years, the school has seen considerable improvements to its facilities, from textbooks to training aids, thanks to increasing financial support from the government. However, building roads connecting all the surrounding villages would be no small task, especially considering the complicated local topography.
Today, a highway does snake through the mountains, but a round trip takes several hours. Foot traffic created narrow shortcuts along the ridges, but they can be extremely dangerous, especially during rainy season.
It’s hard for teachers to extend their care off campus. And aftershocks from the August 3, 2014 Ludian earthquake only made things worse. “Rain has become my biggest headache,” sighed the principal. “All we can do is to urge them to travel in groups. Even so, they still often get injured.”
For ordinary families in mountainous areas, the only way to improve the family’s prospects is to leave for work in big cities because staying home to farm opens
no options. Frequent earthquakes have fractured their homeland, and the village of Lijiashan needs more money to rebuild. It’s only fitting that so many parents – most of the time both mother and father – work elsewhere. The grandparents take care of the kids, ensuring they have a place to live and enough food to eat. But the finer points of parenting are lost, not to mention afterschool pick-ups.
After the earthquake, the local government compensated every household with 40,000 yuan for reconstruction. To rebuild his family’s situation, Xiao Rui’s father left to work elsewhere, leaving behind a semifinished brick house for the 10-year-old girl and his wife, who is so busy farming that she has no time to pick up the girl from school.
The majority of students hiking to and from school are plagued by the same dilemma: Their shoes are not durable enough for such a commute. In front of Xiao Rui’s house is a bamboo basket for worn-out shoes or those that don’t fit. Kids grow fast at such ages, and their shoe sizes constantly change. Few parents can afford to buy a decent pair of shoes that will just be outgrown in a few months.
Recently, particularly after the Ludian quake, the situation at Lijiashan Village Primary School drew more attention from many philanthropic NGOS, which have launched campaigns to help the students. Not long ago, a company donated over 100 pairs of sneakers with non-slip soles. The local youth development foundation has received a massive donation to fund educational aid for children in mountainous areas and train both children and teachers in disaster relief and prevention.
Hiking to school across cliffs is undoubtedly tough for these children, but doing so is their only chance to receive education – the starting point to see the rest of the world.
“Lonely nights fall on everyone still in the village,” described teacher Lu Qinghong. “Kids visit their dreams alone as wind sweeps over the valley. Charity can bring temporary joy, but their life paths traverse precipitous cliffs.”