Ten years on...

By Nora Zheng in Hong Kong | China Daily Asia | Updated: 2018-05-11 21:59

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The new town of Yingxiu is built along the Min River. (PHOTO BY NORA ZHENG AND DARA WANG / CHINA DAILY)

It has been 10 years, but time seems to stop at Xuankou Middle School, located in the town of Yingxiu, Wenchuan county, Sichuan province.

The school was destroyed at 2:28:01 pm Beijing Standard Time on May 12, 2008 by a magnitude-8 earthquake. The earthquake is known as the Wenchuan earthquake, which led to around 87,000 deaths and missing cases and traumatized hundreds of thousands of survivors.

Compared to the relic of Xuankou Middle School, which is kept by the local government to commemorate the victims, the other parts of Yingxiu town have a completely different aspect. New houses and facilities, white and pale brown, sit neatly and vividly along the Min River.

Over the past 10 years, people in Sichuan province have never stopped reconstructing their hometowns destroyed in the earthquake. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has supported the province in many areas, including education, healthcare, infrastructure and conservation.

Wolong National Nature Reserve was devastated in the earthquake, with 14 of 32 giant panda houses totally destroyed. After receiving a donation of 1.4 billion yuan (HK$1.73 billion) from the HKSAR, the newly built Shenshuping protection base has 30 giant panda houses, which are now home to 55 giant pandas. Nineteen of them are baby pandas, born at the base last year.

The relic of Xuankou Middle School is preserved to commemorate victims who died in the tragedy. (PHOTO BY NORA ZHENG AND DARA WANG / CHINA DAILY)

Sichuan University-Hong Kong Polytechnic University Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction was established to better study and manage the disaster. Officially opened in 2013, the institute has set up labs and facilities for disaster management, including a physical therapy lab, a disaster and trauma experience training area and a post-disaster health management lab. Teaching staff from PolyU come to the institute twice a week for exchanges.

Over the past 10 years, the people of Sichuan have dedicated themselves not only to disaster recovery — Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, which began construction in 2016, will be ready in 2020, making Chengdu the third city in China after Beijing and Shanghai to have two airports. Chengdu’s Tianfu New District, officially launched in December 2011, is expected to push the development of the city’s modern industries and fuel the economic development of the entire west. The new district has become an important hub for developing both a regional center and a greater metropolis.