A junior high school in Taiwan is giving grads special honors if they can scale a 15-meter rock wall, even requiring students to take six climbing classes each semester.
The Ershui Junior High school in Changhua, Taiwan, is home to the country’s largest indoor climbing wall. At 15 meters (~49 feet) tall, the wall is equivalent to a five-story building… and middle schoolers are earning their diplomas by proving they can scale it.
While reaching the summit isn’t a requirement to graduate, they’ll receive a special certificate recognizing their climbing accomplishments if they manage to make their way to the top.
Successful pupils even get the chance to sign the document at the end of the grueling challenge, making for an unforgettable memory.
A junior high school in Taiwan is giving students honors if they can scale a 49-foot rock wall.
This isn’t an unusual activity for Eshui Junior High students; after all, the school requires attendees to take six climbing courses every semester, starting from their very first year.
Taiwan junior high school students scale 50ft rock wall to graduate
Staff says that the point isn’t just to encourage their students’ physical fitness, but also grow their mental fortitude.
“We do our best to encourage the students to try it out,” principal Wu Chien-chung told the media. “Like rock climbing, not everyone will make it to the top, but the point is to try. To challenge yourself.”
As explained by climbing coach Tsai Hao-hsun, the construction of the wall was a collaborative effort between the government and Ershui Junior High. It’s often used by other schools in Changhua County for their students to exercise, as well.
The climbing wall is one of twenty ‘extreme’ sport facilities that surround the school, which include ziplines, cliff rappelling, and the world-famous Zhushan Sky Ladder. It’s known as the ‘climbing mecca’ of Taiwan, and attracts all manner of extreme sports enthusiasts to the area.
Ershui Junior High’s unique graduation ceremony started going viral following renowned climber Alex Honnold’s remarkable free-climb of the 508 meter (1,667-foot) Taipei 101 skyscraper in January 2026, which was broadcast live on Netflix to the tune of 6.2 million viewers.
