Students climb 800-meter cliff to get to school

BEIJING, China (KTRK) -- For some students in China, going to school is a matter of life and death.

In Sichuan province, children are forced to descend an 800-meter cliff on an unsteady vine ladder to get to their school.

The two-hour, half-mile trek to campus is so demanding, students only return home twice a month.

Striking video of the children climbing up the ladder shows the painstaking and dangerous route the students must endure.

Children as young as six years old in Atule'er, a village of no more than 400 people, make the climb to and from school.

Some parents volunteer to supervise the students as they make their way up and down the cliff, literally taking a village to get the children to school.

Millions live below the poverty line in the region. Beijing officials say they are working to tackle poverty in the most desperate areas.