A public outcry over photos of young school children clambering up a sheer 800-meter cliff face on rickety wooden ladders, the only way they can get from their village homes to school, has prompted swift action from local authorities.
Atuleer, home to people from the Yi ethnic group in the southwest of Sichuan Province, has no road connection and the residents depend on subsistence farming of potatoes, walnuts and chili peppers.
While many urban residents have expressed shock and disbelief that there are still people struggling for a basic living and education in the world"s second-largest economy, experts said that there is still a long way to go to lift those left behind by China"s modernization out of poverty.
