GLOOMY: Rural students huddle in a cramped classroom (LI MINLAN)

Try and find Lacun Village on a map of China and chances are your search will be in vain. However, this remote outpost of Maji Town, Fugong County in southwest China's Yunnan Province has struck a sympathetic chord with people across the country after stories emerged of the incredible courage village children display on their daily trips to school.

In 2007, a report from Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly newspaper described how an 8-year-old village primary school student crossed the wide turbulent Nujiang River on her way to school every day. She used a pulley and a nylon rope to attach herself to a steel cable connecting both banks of the river, a 2,400-km-long stretch of water flowing from China to Myanmar, and slide across the river, a dangerous feat for a special forces soldier, let alone for a young girl.

Maji Town has seven primary schools and about half of the 250 students needed to slide across the river between their schools and homes every day. One young girl lost her life in the crossing.

This story immediately captured the public's imagination and a year later it was the subject of a movie.  

On March 12, 2008, the village children celebrated as a bridge across the river was officially opened for them. Built with donations from Chinese people from all walks of life, it was followed the next year by another bridge, making the once hazardous journey to school much easier for the students.