China’s famous ‘cable girl’ returns to help remote village after graduating from university with medical degree
- Yu Yanqia, a member of the Lisu ethnic minority, nicknamed ‘cable girl’ comes from high up in the mountains of Yunnan province
- She has decided to return home as a medical worker after her graduation from university, the first person in her village to obtain a higher degree
A girl from China who once grabbed national headlines by crossing a formidable river using a cable pulley to get to school every day is returning to her hometown to repay her community after graduating from medical school.
Yu Yanqia, a member of the Lisu ethnic minority, nicknamed “cable girl” comes from high up in the mountains of Yunnan province’s Nujiang prefecture, southwestern China. She is the first person in her village to go to university. Now she has decided to return home as a medical worker after she graduated earlier this year, the People’s Daily reported.
The young woman became famous in 2007, then aged 8, after being caught on camera by a journalist crossing the Nujiang River near her poverty-stricken home village by sliding on a steel cable attached across cliffs to get to and from school.
“There was wind wuthering beside my ears, waves sweeping and roaring beneath me, and my heart was beating quickly,” Yu said of the experience of crossing the river using the cable-slide.
A nationwide fundraising initiative was set up afterwards and a bridge was built over the river the following year using the money raised. Yu and other local children were spared from risking their lives every day just to get an education.
Yu also got to take trips to Beijing and Kunming, the province’s capital city, using donations made by charitable people.
