For the residents of a remote mountain village in Central China’s Hubei Province, the only connection with the outside world is a precarious zip line, a kilometer-long stretched across a 480-meter deep gorge. The isolated village of Yushan is located in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hubei, 150 kilometers away from the nearest county town. Surrounded by cliffs and a deep valley, the village is without roads to the outside world. The rudimentary zip line consisting of a simple steel cage and powered by a diesel engine was built in 1997 to help local villagers travel and to bring in supplies.

Local resident Zhang Xinjian has been maintaining the ropeway for the past 15 years. “I started to work at this spot since the rope was set up. No one would take the job,” Xinjian said to the Daily Mail. “As my father was the village head he had to assign me to do it and it has been 15 years.”