Students from Nizhuhe Village in Xuanwei, southwest China's Yunnan Province, began their new term on August 30, riding cliff elevators and a cable car from the canyon floor to their mountaintop primary school.

The system works like a ski lift, ferrying children up a 500-meter cliff face. A newly opened 288-meter elevator now runs alongside a 268-meter lift introduced in 2022. Together with shuttle vehicles and a cable car, the journey – once a grueling three-hour climb – now takes about 30 minutes.