Lasting legacy as villagers rejoin the world

Ma Qian'guo is thrilled to see Luobo, China's oldest Qiang ethnic village, rise from the rubble.

Five years after being flattened in the Wenchuan quake, the historic village has been restored to its original state.

However, as its 1,000 or so residents now live in brand-new buildings nearby, the issue Ma now needs to resolve is what to do with the old center.

"I'm eager to find a solution to manage the unique cultural, architectural and ethnic assets," the village's Party chief says.

Luobo, which is about a 30-minute drive from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, has a history dating back 4,000 years and already attracts its fair share of tourists. "This makes efficient management vital," Ma says.

Perched on an alpine plateau more than 2,000 meters from the southern bank of the Minjiang River valley, nearly one-fourth of the village's 234 homes were destroyed in the 2008 disaster.

For 60,000 yuan ($9,700; 7,428 euros) per unit, the village committee bought the damaged buildings from their owners and now plans to hand over the running of the village to a tourism company.

Ma says he's already been in negotiations with several tourism management companies about the project.

The area where Luobo's residents live now was built with help from the government. Houses have been designed to withstand a tremor of magnitude-8, while exterior walls are decorated in traditional Qiang style.

Streetlights in the new village are solar-powered, and residents have running water in their kitchens and bathrooms with pipelines linked to wells deep in the mountains.

Before the quake, villagers had to walk several kilometers to fetch water.

"The quake has brought enormous change," Ma says, adding that arguably the greatest is easy access to the outside world.

From the provincial capital, Luobo is an hour's drive on the Chengdu-Wenchuan highway, which passes over plains and through mountain tunnels, and another 30 minutes on steep, snaking rural roads.

Villagers used to have to travel for a day on narrow and dangerous roads to get to the nearest market, relying on horses to carry home their daily necessities. "Now villagers can complete a round trip to Chengdu within a day," the 49-year-old village Party chief says.

It works two ways, too. The easy access means more tourists can enjoy Luobo's unique Qiang culture, including its embroidery, clothes, buildings, religion, customs, language and Chinese New Year celebrations.

The growing number of visitors is helping to create new opportunities for locals.

Yang Zezhen, 46, has long observed the ethnic tradition that men are a family's main breadwinner and women do the housework.

With her husband working away, Yang now earns a wage as a waitress in one of the new two-floor Qiang buildings in the relocated village.

"I'm changing myself and still learning to do well," she says shyly, as other Qiang women sit next to her and do embroidery.

Village chief Ma says, like Yang, most residents are adjusting well.

When the magnitude-8 quake hit Sichuan in 2008, 44 people in Luobo were killed, while most survivors were left homeless. It took seven days before rescuers were able to reach the village, as roads had been cut off by falling mountain rocks.

With no phone connection, Ma says he sent a colleague to the township to report the damage. He recalls he was not sure whether the man would return. But he got back two days later despite the arduous task and aftershocks.

Ma, who is ethnic Qiang, has been working in the village for 27 years. He says his mission is to encourage villagers to adjust to their new surroundings, lifestyles and opportunities.

For example, he says he has already turned the village fields into cherry farms. As well as participating in tourism activities, which can bring farmers more money, he says the trees and flowers will enhance the picturesque environment.

With Luobo's fame increasing, Ma says he and his colleagues have decided to train families to run hotels, restaurants and other services.

"During the past five years, we have experienced both disaster and an unprecedented transformation that we could not have dreamed of before," he says.

"So I'm very much committed to taking good care of our ethnic legacies and handing them down to future generations."