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Luo aims high as she climbs out of poverty
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Luo Dengping crawls up a steep cliff in a remote part of southwest China’s Guizhou Province to collect herbs growing in cracks in the rocks.
Luo, 37, is a resident of Getuhe, a village in Ziyun County, which is well-known for its steep karst mountains. Large numbers of swallows live in caves on the cliffs, and their droppings make good fertilizer for the village’s crops.
“The herbs that grow in the cracks can be used for traditional Chinese medicine,” Luo said. “So I come here every day, hoping to earn money.”
Luo’s story was recently shown in a BBC video that went viral online. The video showed her crawling up a dangerous cliff without a rope.
At the age of 15, Luo learned to climb from her father, to help collect fertilizer for the family’s crops.
“We were really poor and lived in a thatched cottage,” said Luo, who never attended school. “My sister was luckier, but she dropped out after grade three because my family was too poor to support her studies.”
Luo said that when she first started climbing, she felt scared and had to crawl very slowly.
“Climbing the cliff without ropes is a tradition in this area,” Luo said. “Some people place coffins on the cliffside, and others climb to pick herbs.”
Most of the climbers are men, but as there are no boys in her family, Luo had to learn the skill.
“I think men and women are equal, if men can do it, I can do it too,” she said.
In her late teens Luo became a migrant worker at a construction site in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou. In 2000, she returned to Getuhe, married a villager and had two children. While her children grew up she worked in the fields and occasionally climbed the cliffs looking for herbs to earn some extra money.
Then, in 2015, the local government decided to develop the karst mountains into a tourist attraction.
“Tourists then started coming in, and the government wanted us to climb the cliffs to entertain them,” Luo said.
She joined a “Spider-Man” team with five other villagers. She was the only woman and the youngest climber.
Twice a day, she climbs the 108-meter cliff.
Years of climbing have left her hands calloused.
“It’s not so bad, because the tourist area is within walking distance, so I can take care of my children,” Luo said. “They also provide lunch for us, which is good.”
Luo works from 8am to 6pm every day, with four days rest each month. Her average monthly salary is about 3,000 yuan (US$458) which includes a basic salary and commission on the number of tickets sold to tourists.
Luo said she wants to make more money to help her husband, who supports the family by driving freight trucks.
“I want my children to continue going to school,” she said.
China has set a target of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020, including the complete eradication of poverty. From 2013 to 2016, 55.64 million rural people were lifted out of poverty in China.
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