Sichuan earthquake, 10 years on: how a tragedy changed China

May 12, 2008, 2.28pm. On this day a decade ago, a magnitude-8 earthquake struck southwestern China, tearing towns and cities asunder. Powerful shock waves erupted from the epicentre in Wenchuan county, spreading rapidly across Sichuan province. One of the worst quakes in the nation’s history, it left 87,000 people dead, 370,000 injured and 5 million homeless.

That year was to have been China’s coming-out party as a world superpower, having emerged relatively unscathed in a global financial crisis and hosting the Olympics for the first time. But the quake lay bare the country’s vulnerabilities. The pain wrought by the natural disaster was worsened by revelations of human culpability. China would never again be the same.

Today, 10 years on, even as spectres of the tragedy continue to haunt survivors, Sichuan stands testament to a tremendous transformation. For better or worse, the quake has changed the region.