China village where children climb cliffside ladder may get stairs

The concerns arose after striking pictures were taken of the children climbing the ladder in Sichuan province’s Zhaojue county

A village in China’s mountainous west where schoolchildren must climb an 800-meter (2,625-foot)-high bamboo ladder secured to a sheer cliff face may get a set of steel stairs to improve safety.

In this May 14, 2016 photo, children carrying their schoolbags take rest on the ladder built on a cliff in Zhaojue county, southwest China's Sichuan province. (AP)

The concerns arose after striking pictures were taken of the children climbing the ladder in Sichuan province’s Zhaojue county, in a scene that underscores the vast gap in development between China’s prosperous, modern east and parts of the remote inland west that remain mired in poverty.

Children carry their school backpacks as they climb a cliff on their way home from school.

The ladder is the only access to the village of Atuleer to which the children return every two weeks from the school at which they board. The 72 families who live there are members of the Yi minority group and subsist mainly by farming potatoes, walnuts and chili peppers.

The ladder is the only access to the village of Atuleer to which the children return every two weeks from the school at which they board

A child with her school backpack takes a rest on a cliff as she and other children return home from school.

“The most important issue at hand is to solve the transport issue. That will allow us to make larger-scale plans about opening up the economy and looking for opportunities in tourism,” county Communist Party secretary General Jikejingsong was quoted as saying in the news release.