Education sees Xinjiang children thrive

In 2008, Taxkorgan adopted a school policy whereby all the students enjoy free education for up to 15 years from kindergarten to high school, and students from fourth to sixth grade can attend the boarding school in the county seat.

However, the road to school has always been challenging for Reskam's students.

Over 20 years ago, Ayizmal Mirzjan's father attended the school in Reskam, which only gave lessons up to sixth grade. Like most of his peers, he did not continue with his education afterward.

Even five years ago, as Chen Jingquan, an officer at a police station along the route to the county seat recalled, once a snow disaster struck, the students had to get out of the car and trekked 18 km across the snow-capped mountain peak, and then got in another car waiting for them at the other side.

Having escorted thousands of students over the past eight years, Chen knows all too well the difficulties: students had to navigate a perilous journey－two 5,000-meter-high mountain peaks, a single-lane way built on the cliff right along the roaring Yarkand River, and snowfields－before making their way to school.