Rebuilding after Sichuan earthquake, one brick and one life at a time
Billions have been spent on communities torn apart by the May 12 earthquake 10 years ago but the destruction from that day still casts a long shadow over the disaster zone
A decade on, Wang Lirong still has nightmares about the day her house collapsed.
It was just after lunch at 2.28pm, on May 12, 2008 when one of China’s deadliest earthquakes struck southwestern Sichuan province, razing her home in the town of Yingxiu, Wenchuan county.
The shock waves from the magnitude-8 quake tore through the town, where Wang was sitting at home with her two-year-old daughter and uncle.
Sichuan earthquake, 10 years on: how a tragedy changed China
At first she thought it was a gas explosion and the three of them fled the house. But it soon became obvious what had happened.
“Even now, the day of the quake remains very clear,” she said. “If I had been sleeping, it would’ve been all over. We would’ve all died.”
Sichuan parents still look for answers in earthquake’s ruins
The destruction was overwhelming – entire towns and villages needed to be completely rebuilt. More than 46 million people were directly affected by the disaster, most of them in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces.
