Every story your grandfather told you about how many miles he walked in the snow to get to school has been obliterated by what students in the Chinese village of Pili have to go through to get their learning on.

Pili is in a mountainous region over 100 miles away from the closest school, so every semester about 80 of village’s school-eligible youngsters embark on a two-day journey which includes scaling down the face of a cliff and wading across a rapidly moving river.

One of the school’s teachers, who helps the students with their journey, thinks it’s not all that big of a deal:

“It’s very steep but we’re mountain people here and used to walking like this,” the teacher says. “We haven’t lost one yet. There are severe penalties for truancy.”

They haven’t lost a student yet? At least he’s optimistic. Watch a Chinese news report on the extraordinary commute below, and be thankful for school bus drivers.

[via Asylum UK]

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