'Sky school bus' cuts 3-hour canyon commute to 30 minutes in China's Yunnan
A pair of cliffside lifts known locally as the "sky school bus" has cut a gruelling three-hour journey to school in southwestern China to just 30 minutes.
A new lift and cableway system in China's Yunnan province has transformed the commute for children living at the base of a canyon, shrinking a three-hour journey to just 30 minutes. Once, the only way to reach school was by climbing steep mountain paths with a vertical drop of over 500 meters. However, the addition of a sky school bus - a 300-meter lift called Fuyao, which came online this year - has made the once arduous trek a quick ride.
Local villagers and students can utilize both the lifts and the cableway at no cost, with a designated route specifically for pupils traveling to and from school. The old paths that children used to traverse are now a distant memory, replaced by the efficiency and ease of the modern transportation system. A visitor to the area remarked on the emotional impact of seeing the old paths, noting that despite the challenges children faced in reaching school, they persevered.
The new lift and cableway system, built as part of the canyon's tourism development, now serves the dual purpose of accommodating visitors who come to admire the views and local children heading to their educational institutions. For the students in these villages, the sky school bus has literally and figuratively lifted the burden of their daily journey, offering a more hopeful and efficient path towards their future.
Written by urgent.news from VnExpress International's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.