Children in a remote Chinese village once climbed a cliff for three hours to reach school. A new 288-metre elevator has cut the trip to about 30 minutes.

The Fuyao Elevator opened on July 31 at the Nizhu River Grand Canyon in Yunnan province. It rises along the canyon wall at five metres per second, covering the height in 57 seconds. It carries 81 passengers at a time.

It joins a 268-metre elevator that opened in 2022 and an aerial cable car. Together they move up to 1,200 people an hour. Students ride a shuttle bus to the cliff base, take the elevator, then continue by cable car.

About 20 children from Nizhuhe village used the old trail. The steep path had loose gravel and sections barely half a metre wide. Some children boarded at school to avoid the daily climb.

The lifts are free for local students and villagers. By the end of August, they had carried nearly 1,000 student trips.

Geography no longer decides whether these children get to class.