Experts at an international symposium held in Beijing have revealed that many of China’s older urban houses and many newer rural ones do not meet earthquake safety standards when it comes to structural design, according to today's bjnews.com.cn.

All Chinese houses built before 1979 and 90 percent of rural houses built after 1979 are not quake-proof in their design, said Sun Botao, head of the Engineering Mechanics Institute of China Earthquake Administration at Japan's Revelation International Symposium, held on Nov 13.

China has regulations that require houses to be designed according to anti-seismic guidelines, although it seems they have only been followed by urban developers because most rural houses, in particular those built by farmers instead of governments, don’t measure up, according to Cheng Shaoge, deputy chief engineer of the China Academy of Building Research.

Sources from the China Earthquake Administration said that tremor-related departments have compiled seismic zoning maps to guide construction companies in integrating quake-proof structural designs.

Sun revealed that work on the fifth edition of the map in now in progress, with a release reportedly forecast for the first half of next year. The latest version will replace the fourth edition which was completed in August, 2001 and was amended after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake.