(CNN) The world's most terrifying school run is about to get a little less hair raising.

In the mountains of southwest China's Sichuan province, a group of children must descend an 800-meter (half mile) cliff to reach their school.

Previously they used unsteady vine ladders to make the descent but now a steel ladder is being built to make the treacherous journey from the isolated cliff-top village of Atule'er easier.

Photos: Climbing 'sky ladders' to school Atule'er, a village in China's Sichuan province, received widespread attention after state-run Beijing News published a series of photos of students climbing vine ladders along a 800-meter (half-mile) cliff to go to school.

Hide Caption 1 of 4 Photos: Climbing 'sky ladders' to school Fifteen children ages 6 to 15 go to school at the foot of a mountain. They make the journey climbing the unsteady "sky ladders," as locals call them. Hide Caption 2 of 4 Photos: Climbing 'sky ladders' to school The children don't seem frightened by the descent down the cliff, Beijing News photographer Chen Jie says. Hide Caption 3 of 4 Photos: Climbing 'sky ladders' to school The children spend roughly two hours on each trip up or down the cliff. The trip is so demanding they go home twice a month, the photographer says. Hide Caption 4 of 4

Pictures of 15 grade schoolers, some as young as six, making the two-hour odyssey to and from their boarding school went viral earlier this year

The ladder consists of 1,500 steel pipes and will be completed in early November. The village started to construct the $150,000 steel ladder in August.

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