The authorities at the county, town and village levels in Kargilik County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have organized convoys to escort middle school students on the icy mountain roads to and from school during the summer and winter vacations.
Such missions have been carried out four times a year at the beginning and the end of each semester since 2008, when the local authorities initiated a program to improve education for the children. Under the program, children receive preschool education in villages, primary school education at town-level schools, and go to boarding middle schools in the county seat.
Situated in Kunlun Mountains, Xihexiu Town has 327 students from its nine villages studying in the county seat. One of the villages is 370 kilometers away from the school.
While students were taking final exams at their schools, officials from 13 departments of the county covering education, social security, transportation, health and weather were gathering at a meeting to discuss the details on the convoys.
They were to send the students to Xihexiu Town first, and then the various villages would bring the students home.
A convoy, comprising 13 buses, arrived at the campus of a middle school in the early morning of Jan 10. The students, excited about the vacation, also got up early.
To ensure the safety of the students, the convoy was led by traffic police vehicles and followed by ambulances and vehicles from the transportation department. The traffic police also took temporary traffic control measures on the route of the convoy.
Three hours after departure, the convoy arrived at Xihexiu Town, where 80 vehicles from the nine villages were already waiting to take the students back home for free. Some of the vehicles arrived there the night before and had food and water prepared in the trunks for the students.
Mireguli, an eighth-grade student, and her sister are from Kulan Agu Village, which is still 185 kilometers away from the stop.
They had to travel through two more mountains at an altitude of around 4,000 meters and more than 160 bends to get home.
After eight more hours of stop-and-go driving amid the complicated road conditions, the convoy finally arrived at Kulan Agu Village at around 20:00 in the evening.
The 207 households in Kulan Agu used to live in adobe houses until 2018, when neatly arranged residences were built for them.
Before the educational reform was initiated, there had never been a college student in the entire Xihexiu Town. But now, the town has students enrolled by colleges every year.
In 2024, the town sent 25 students to colleges, recording a college enrollment rate of 35 percent.
"Knowledge changes fate. When we visit villagers, we always emphasize on one thing: cultivating talents for the Communist Party and the nation," said the town chief.
Mireguli said she hopes to be a doctor or teacher when she grows up. Her sister also said she wants to become a doctor, and their reasons are the same: they will be able to help when someone in their family gets sick.
They both said they would return to Xihexiu Town if they really become doctors, and it's worthy of traveling hundreds of kilometers away to the school, because studying can help realize their dreams.
Kargilik County in China's Xinjiang organizes convoys to escort students to and from school on icy mountain roads
