Chinese Government Training Kids to Free Solo

Search
Go

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List
This thread has been locked
Messages 1 - 14 of total 14 in this topic
Roger Breedlove

climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 21, 2017 - 08:51am PT
From The Economist 15 April 2017

LAST year some images went viral on the internet in China. They showed children descending an 800-metre (2,600-foot) rock face on rickety ladders made of vines, wood and rusty metal. Their destination: school. The photographer was told by a local official that “seven or eight” people had died after losing their grip. Yet the children did this regularly—there is no school at the top of the mountain in Sichuan province where they live. The photographs conveyed two striking aspects of life in the Chinese countryside: a hunger for education so strong that children will risk their lives for it, and a callous lack of government attention to the needs of rural students.

BigB

Trad climber
Red Rock
Apr 21, 2017 - 08:56am PT
better hope the chubby kids not above you
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Apr 21, 2017 - 09:28am PT
...Cliff Notes!
chill

climber
The fat part of the bell-curve
Apr 21, 2017 - 10:11am PT
Stoopid americans, so soft!
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Apr 21, 2017 - 10:30am PT

The future is Chinese... if they strive for and cultivate knowledge... as they seem to do... I wish China and the children good luck!
BLUEBLOCR

Social climber
joshua tree
Apr 21, 2017 - 10:40am PT
i love the Chinese.

Wish my kid had to do that every morning. Bet they sit attentively by the time they get that chair:)
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Apr 21, 2017 - 02:50pm PT
Probably a lot fewer of those kids require Ritalin to pay attention to the teachers!
WBraun

climber
Apr 21, 2017 - 02:53pm PT
If one of em falls off it becomes a "Chinese take-out"

:-)
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Apr 21, 2017 - 06:08pm PT
Werner, I'm laughing here.

Didn't some guy named Wing invent a flying suit?
Roger Breedlove

climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 21, 2017 - 07:09pm PT
Radishi, I'm not sure that reporting that the Chinese government's solution to kids climbing wooden cliff ladders to get home is to replace them with metal ladders would be seen as a fix.

That said, this photo comparison certainly seems to show an improvement.

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
Apr 21, 2017 - 11:47pm PT
A total fable - what a load of crap.
Winemaker

Sport climber
Yakima, WA
Apr 22, 2017 - 06:57am PT
No, it's real enough. The village is at the top; the children go up and down twice a month and live at the school while attending it.

[Click to View YouTube Video]
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Apr 22, 2017 - 07:00am PT
Higher education is not available? :0)
Tom Patterson

Trad climber
Seattle
Apr 22, 2017 - 07:11am PT
Roger, that's a really moving video. The contrast between what these kids have to do (and are willing to do) and the "first world problems" some of our kids face is stark.
Messages 1 - 14 of total 14 in this topic
Return to Forum List
 
Our Guidebooks
spacerCheck 'em out!
SuperTopo Guidebooks

guidebook icon
Try a free sample topo!

 
SuperTopo on the Web

Recent Route Beta