Original subtitles

We're off to Mainland China for a journey covering 6 provinces,

going deep into 10 impoverished counties.

This journey is going to take us almost 3 months,

covering thousands of kilometres in one go.

In 2012, China had almost 100 million of its total population in poverty.

What can be done to lift these 100 million people out of poverty within 8 years?

Besides feeding them and clothing them,

what about giving them security for education, medical care and housing?

Onto the path towards no poverty,

we're going all the way to the rainforest in the country's furthest south.

Here I am at China's rainforest.

Look...this is really like the Amazon rainforest.

It is home to generations of the indigenous people - the Li ethnic group.

Trekking across deep gorges at the Yungui Plateau...

The villagers told me since transportation was inconvenient,

with no paved roads or bridges,

for food and supplies to be transported up the mountain,

you had to pay double the price.

The zip-line was once their only means of transport across the river.

But it's extremely dangerous.

One slip of the hand and you could fall into the river.

From a remote autonomous prefecture...

The villagers used to live in traditional huts like these.

See? It looks like the ceiling can collapse anytime.

...off we go into the Great Northwest: the Gobi Desert.

Wow! It's so windy! Yes. I mean you're awesome, Big Brother.

It's really... too horrifying out here, isn't it?

And finally, all the way onto the Sichuan-Tibet Plateau.

I'm heading towards the Sichuan-Tibet Plateau...

the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Thanks to Tourism Poverty Alleviation efforts

and the influence of internet celebrities,

this place became famous overnight.

Treading the whole of China...

to see 10 areas once deeply impoverished.

Through how much effort by how many people,

paying how much as a price...

did they manage to walk out of impoverishment

and thrive on no poverty land?

After trudging "thousands of miles, clouds and moon".

The five of us... See?

We're towing some twenty pieces of luggage.

We've just arrived at our first stop: Sichuan.

The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture

located in the Hengduan Mountains in southwest Sichuan

is the most classic, extensive, contiguous poverty-stricken areas.

The prefecture has a population of over 5 million,

half of which belong to the ethnic minority group: Yi.

One after another, villages spread across high mountains and deep gorges.

The unique geographical landscape of the Daliang Mountains

keeps this place virtually hidden from the world.

"Poverty" has been a word stamped on their back from generation to generation.

There are about 2 million Yi people living here.

It was only in the 1950s, after the founding of the People's Republic of China,

that the slavery system was truly abolished.

Before, they never even had the concept of having anything they could call their own.

The Yi stockade village we're visiting

is called "Atulie'er Village".

It's a classic impoverished village.

Many people or even the whole world have heard of its other name:

The Cliff Village.

The whole village was built on a cliff at 1,500 meters above sea level.

As the mountain slopes are just too steep,

they can't even afford to have half a road for vehicles.

So there was always just one way to go up or down the mountain...

Along the cliff that's standing at almost 90 degrees,

they loosely built a rattan ladder - "The Ladders of Heaven" -

that climbed all the way up 1,000 metres...

That's almost as high as Tai Mo Shan in Hong Kong.

To learn more about how the villagers live at the Cliff Village,

we're especially here today to climb the Ladders of Heaven.

They made it very clear just now.

If you're afraid of heights, just stop here.

Well... I shouldn't have fear of heights. I'll just try my best...

I'm glad I have Pacha Youge to climb these ladders with me today.

We can say, he has been through life and death with the villagers here.

Because he's their official for poverty alleviation.

Judging from your build, I think it's not a problem.

Not a problem?

Right. You do have confidence in me.

To count these step by step... it's 2,556 steps in all.

2,556 steps?

Let's go. Let's start!

The Atulie'er Village official for poverty alleviation Pacha Youge

is from the Yi ethnic group.

He was sent five years ago from the county city to station in the village.

At that time, his uncle said,

"Wow, this village is not for humans!"

Then in 2016, for the safety of the villagers,

the local government decided to build a steel ladder.

It's safer for users,

but poverty is still deep-rooted up the mountain.

I am now climbing the staircases, up to the mountain,

to visit the legendary Cliff Village,

as you can see it is already quite steep, quite frightening.

And then I got to meet Labo.

Hello. I heard you're the "Cliff Flying Man".

This is the Cliff Flying Man, Mouse Labo.

You're the flying man... Cliff Flying Man... How old are you?

I was born in 1994.

1994...

Mouse Labo was born and bred up in the Cliff Village.

He has been running around the mountains like a monkey ever since he's small.

So people call him the Cliff Flying Man.

There are six children in Labo's family.

All his brothers and sisters are working in the city.

As the youngest son, he decided to stay and take care of their old parents.

They say you can fly up to the top in half an hour.

And come down basically in 15 minutes.

You're kidding. I was panting before I even climbed 1/3 of the distance.

That's not even 1/10 actually.

Not even 1/10?

We haven't even started.

No?

I'm really "forced up Liangshan" now...

Those little kids we saw on the way... so small

and they're carrying their school bags to school.

Their moms would hold on to them with a belt and go out.

I'm horrified just seeing that.

We've arrived?

Here we are. This is our village.

Our beautiful village.

The Cliff Village... We've arrived!

The Cliff Village...

the most classic of impoverished villages in the country.

Over a hundred families of the Yi people live here.

Their ancestors were nomads.

They were travelling by over a century ago

and found this a real sanctuary with breathtaking natural scenery

and fertile land.

Ages ago, the Cliff Village was much better than many other places.

It's just that later on, roads got to be built outside,

but none here. So we lagged behind.

Since he was born Labo spent all his life up the mountain.

Let's have a look.

Let's go in.

This is my home.

This is your home! Wow...

Not a lot of space. The living room, bedroom... all here.

This is your living room and also where you sleep.

And here's the kitchen.

So you grew up here?

It was not so nice back then.

So this is the improved version already?

Definitely.

Did you have water and electricity supply then?

No, definitely not.

There was no water, no electricity or network.

No mobiles or networks, that's for sure.

But water and electricity are basic.

It's alright without electricity, but water is a must.

We'd go fetch water from a neighbouring village.

We'd get up and set off at about 5am every morning.

It's not even dawn.

That's right. You had to go earlier.

They didn't have enough water for use over there either.

Labo, what was life like when you were small?

When I was small, my mom would be out for work.

I didn't know where my mom and dad would be working...

So what happened if you're hungry?

I'd just cry when I was hungry. Nothing else I could do.

After I started school, I had to climb the cliff.

That path was really too hard...

Imagine how small you are in primary school and to go so far out...

It's 1,400 m above sea level here.

We had to go up to 2,500 m above sea level. And then walk further.

We had to start out before dawn,

and arrive at school just after dark.

The path was just too dangerous.

It's not a road. Just rocks.

If you're careless and you fall, you'd be in real trouble.

You fall and it'd be "Bye-bye".

So you started school when you're eight.

That's lucky of me.

Some of us could only go to primary one when they were 12 or 13.

Because that's how the environment was like.

We didn't know what the world outside was like

before we were 17 or 18.

There were no mobile phones or television.

We didn't know what the world was like outside.

We thought it's all the same.

It's only after I was twenty and I went outside for work

that I realized, wow... there were all those tall buildings out there.

In the city, you could take a bus to school.

Or you could just walk some 15-20 minutes to school.

We had to walk a whole day to school.

There's such a big difference.

After working a few years, I came back.

Because over here, it's the youngest son's duty to take care of our parents.

My brother started his own family,

so I came back and took care of mom and dad.

So dutiful of you!

Well, I should.

The big mountains are indeed blocking

the path of young men like Labo.

Where the future is going to take him,

no one can give him the answer.

Atulie'er Village official Pacha Youge

was stationed in this village five years ago

to be the leader of the poverty-relief project.

When you first arrived... when you first saw how they lived,

how did you feel?

My first impression was... it's really backward. Very inaccessible.

It's not reachable by road, and that's a huge problem.

Yes. Back then the mobile's only use was for telling the time.

No signals.

- There was no network coverage, right? - That's right.

Youge said the villagers had almost zero income back then.

They planted this corn just for food themselves.

It's not easy to sell it for money.

You could carry it down, but not get paid much.

If people knew you're from here, they'd pay you less.

"So you're from the Cliff Village?

I don't think you're going to carry it all the way back."

They'd force it down by how much?

50%. They could force down the price like that.

Wow.

In fact,

remote villages impoverished by lack of education like the Cliff Village

can be found all over the country.

It's not easy to get to the root of the problem.

That's because poverty-relief work used to go step-by-step,

with broad coverage, but making slow progress.

In 2013, however, a modern strategy of

Targeted Poverty Alleviation was born.

The first step - computerization.

Hundred thousands of researchers were sent out,

covering the whole country, for a population census.

As a result, 128,000 impoverished villages were identified,

locking in on 99 million people living in poverty

while getting to know the reasons behind for targeted treatment.

For every place, targeted measures were worked out.

Millions of capable men like Pacha Youge

were then sent to station in the villages.

How did you approach it?

We'd visit the places in the daytime for research.

At night, we would sit around the fireplace

and discuss how we could deal with the things

and work out the solutions.

The whole village worked hard together

and finally in 2016, good news came.

The first farmers' professional cooperative was formed

and they started to raise sheep together.

And then we brought in the green peppercorns,

and started growing navel oranges.

In August 2016, we started building the steel ladder.

In 2016, the government invested over one million yuan,

for able-bodied men including Labo, and other workers

to transport 120 tons of steel pipes up the mountain,

overcoming all the hardship, and built the steel ladder of 2,556 steps.

To us, this steel ladder is like a highway.

To the villagers, this steel ladder is like a highway already

because they can climb a lot faster now.

In 2016, the villagers finally had their fresh water supply.

The same year came the historic moment to the villagers...

Power cable construction for the whole village was completed;

and the 4G network, too.

The moment the signals got through...

for the first time ever, the villagers could watch TV.

After the steel ladder and the 4G network were built,

this formerly small, remote and inaccessible village in the mountain

became connected with the world.

Connected.

Truly connected. That's right.

Many people in the village started using smartphones.

Many young people make short videos and are doing live streaming too.

In the beginning they hardly had any fans.

But even if there were just two or three people watching,

they would speak very loudly in front of the camera.

They'd get so excited. They didn't speak Putonghua well.

When the netizens asked them something, they couldn't read

so they didn't know how to respond.

But gradually after doing live streaming for a while, they learnt to read.

They may not be able to write but they can now read and understand.

They're picking up more words.

Through exchange with the netizens,

they're getting stronger in their Putonghua skills.

When they first started live streaming on the steel ladder

and came across words they didn't know, they'd say... "Sir, what does it mean?"

And now, they are far more capable, in editing the videos too.

I can't compare with them at all.

And Labo became the first generation internet celebrity of the Cliff Village too.

In January this year, the first guesthouse was opened.

And Labo did live streaming to invite netizens over for a visit.

Remember to visit the Cliff Village and climb the steel ladder with me.

We can walk through some primitive forests to the grasslands.

We can pasture some cows and watch the sunrise.

I'm waiting for you!

When the outside world first learnt about the existence of the Cliff Village,

everyone got curious.

Many visitors started coming from around the country

and even from all over the world.

The village quickly started to make a lot more income.

Poverty-relief work using the internet has brought in unexpected results.

So in recent years, not just for the Cliff Village,

China's big three telecoms have kept

speeding up construction of networks to cover all 832 impoverished counties.

In 2015,

only less than 70% of the country's rural areas had fiber coverage,

and the remote villages, less than 25%.

Yet in 2020, fiber coverage and 4G connections in the rural areas

are about the same as in the city -

at over 98%.

There are over 2,000 remote and impoverished villages

like the Cliff Village in Liangshan of Sichuan.

To solve the problem of generational poverty once and for all

for over one million people,

the biggest systematic resettlement

programme in modern history was born.