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Commitment by the government lays solid foundation for winning the battle

Mose Dati rose early on the morning of May 13, 2020, cleaned his house and yard thoroughly, locked the door, climbed down a 2,556-step steel ladder and walked into a new chapter of his life.

The then 51-year-old and his wife, living in Atulieer, a mountainous village atop a cliff in Zhaojue county, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province, were moving into a new home in a building at a newly constructed relocation community in the county, some 60 kilometers from the foot of the cliff.

That day, 344 villagers from 84 impoverished families moved to their new homes.

Atulieer, known as "cliff village", is situated at an altitude of 1,600 meters, and a rattan ladder used to be the only way to access it.

In May 2016, photographs of children using the ladder to get to school were published by Beijing News, quickly going viral and drawing national attention to the village and its residents.

As China was conducting a poverty alleviation campaign at the time, Atulieer became a focus of this national strategy.

At the end of 2016, the rattan ladder was replaced by a steel one. More facilities were built and services introduced, including towers providing 4G communications signals, and banking services to assist farmers.

Targeted strategies such as herding sheep, planting olive trees and developing tourism, were introduced to help local people earn more.

Last month, a local official told news media outlet TheCover, which is based in Sichuan, the annual per capita income in Atulieer had reached 10,400 yuan ($1,448). The village has also changed its name to Xuanya, which translates as "cliff village". Tourists flock to the area to see the ladder.

In November 2020, the Sichuan provincial government announced that residents in Zhaojue had been lifted out of poverty.