For children living at the bottom of the canyon, reaching school once meant climbing steep mountain paths across a vertical drop of more than 500 m. The lift and cableway system now carries them directly towards the clifftop.
Footage shows the Qingyun and Fuyao lifts climbing the sheer walls of the Nizhu River Grand Canyon in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province, as visitors explore the gorge below. Video by Viory
The 268-meter Qingyun lift opened in 2022.
A second, 288-m lift called Fuyao entered service this year, increasing capacity along the route. Local villagers and schoolchildren can use both lifts and the cableway free of charge, with a dedicated route for pupils traveling to and from school.
"We saw many of the old paths that children used to take in the past to get an education. It truly makes one sigh with emotion; despite such a difficult journey to school, they never backed down and kept moving forward. Just like the future of China, always moving forward," one visitor said.
