At the Epicenter, an Urge to Love and Live, Part 1

The May 2008 earthquake wiped out half of Yingxiu's population. Survivors are rebuilding the town -- and their lives.

05-13 14:09 Caijing 

By staff reporters Li Hujun, Wang Heyan and Chenzhong Xiaolu, and intern reporter Lan Fang

(Caijing Magazine) May 14, 2008: "In the dim moonlight, the rugged profiles of Yingxiu's post-tremor landscape are eerie, shocking. Water, electricity and all communications have been cut off. This is a small town surrounded by mountains on four sides. Only a few houses still stand. I grope my way through darkness. A strong stench of dead bodies hangs in the air. Cries for help can be heard coming from under the debris, constantly."

Yingxiu was the largest town in Sichuan Province's Wenchuan County, with more than 10,000 residents, before a Caijing reporter filed the above dispatch via satellite phone. The report came some 55 hours after a major earthquake struck May 12, 2008. Yingxiu was at the epicenter. The ground beneath the reporter's feet trembled while rocks cascaded from cliffs. Fewer than 3,000 townspeople had survived.

We returned in April, shortly before the one year anniversary of the earthquake, to reassess Yingxiu. It was hard to find a family that did not lose someone. Officials say the disaster claimed 6,566 lives in this town alone.

The landscape is still shattered. Survivors live in temporary housing. Squeezed for land, some villagers have erected new homes on geologically unstable plots. Plans call for farmers who lost cultivatable property to move into three-story apartment buildings.

In the process of rebuilding, locals have shown unprecedented interest in governing issues -- relief goods distribution, land requisitioning and housing subsidies. These have all become personal concerns.

Yingxiu has also become a case study for geologists from around the globe. New quake-proof technologies and materials are expected to be applied here in the future.

In Memoriam

On a slope about 300 meters from a temporary housing block in the town's center lies a public cemetery. Graveyard guards say at least 2,000 people who died in the quake are buried here, although there are no official figures.

Ma Fuyang, 64, and Hu Jianguo, 68, have been assigned to guard the site. They sweep tombs each morning and burn sacrifices left by victims' relatives at sunset. Each receives a monthly salary of 550 yuan from the government. 

Ma, a former cook, recalled that on the fourth day after the quake, bodies removed from the debris were carried by soldiers to a sun-facing slope. They dug three parallel pits, each 150 meters long, 3 meters wide and 4 meters deep. The pits quickly filled with six layers of bodies and disinfectants, Ma said. Smaller pits were dug on the same slope for later arrivals.

"Yingxiu power plant workers were put in the middle layers, and students on top," Ma said. "My granddaughter is likely there with them."

Hu's 11-year-old grandson was buried on the slope as well, somewhere, in one of the pits. No one knows exactly where dead relatives lie. But they are remembered. Stone tablets, wooden boards, tree branches, sutra streamers and paper windmills have been scattered in memoriam across the sloping gravesite.

This past Qingming Jie, or Tomb Sweeping Festival, on April 4, a large number of tourists visited Yingxiu. Ma had mixed feelings. "Sometimes, when I see people talk and laugh and pose for photos here, I am very sad. But large groups of tourists help the economy, and that means hope."

One Survivor

Trapped under debris for 178 hours and 22 minutes was 32-year-old Ma Yuanjiang, an employee at the Yingxiu Bay Power Generation Plant. He was lifted to safety from the ruins of a seven-story office building early on May 20, eight days after the tremor.

Before they were rescued, Ma and a buried colleague, Yu Jinhua, encouraged each other while trapped in the rubble. They rested in turns and talked about their children, families and loved ones. Yu was pulled free after 148 hours thanks to a doctor who clambered through the debris and amputated her legs. Ma entrusted Yu to care for his 4-year-old daughter, should he die.

Ma survived longer than almost anyone trapped by the earthquake, enduring hunger, thirst, pain and hallucinations Upon the news of his rescue, his daughter painteda picture. She drew an airplane, a ship, a doctor and a soldier. Over the next six months, Ma recuperated. He underwent scalp operations and an amputation. As soon as he was allowed to leave the hospital, he visited a key rescuer, volunteer Yin Chunlong, as well as soldiers and officials from the Shanghai Fire Brigade.

Ma returned to his job as a power plant deputy director on December 19, the day the generators resumed after post-quake repairs. It's a job he'd held since graduating from college 12 years earlier. Now he works with an artificial left hand, donated by a charity group, which can handle simple tasks and 360-degree movement. On National Volunteer Day, March 5, he signed up to be a volunteer. He says he wants to help others.

Psychological treatment has benefited Ma. He says he feels good now. "I don't have nightmares. I accept those memories calmly," he said.

Yu, meanwhile, is still recovering in hospital. Ma says he plans to have a beer with her someday in the nearby city of Dujiangyan, fulfilling a promise they made together under the debris.

The Yingxiu Bay Power Generation Plant, established in 1971, altogether lost 130 of its 310 employees in the earthquake. Along with its office building, factory and residential houses, its three major power stations and a control tower were also demolished.

The Ertaishan Control Tower was the only hydropower transmission line from southern Aba to the outside world. After the quake, hydropower transmission in the whole prefecture was cut by 25 percent. Despite concerns for potential geological hazards at its original site, the control tower was rebuilt as scheduled on May 12.

Finding Contentment

The Shiweitian Restaurant, whose title means food first, in Yingxiu is already filled with customers at 6 a.m. Waitress Yao Xianqun, 42, limps among the tables, serving rice porridge, steamed dumplings and pickled vegetables.

A customer calls for a bill. Yao moves slowly and apologizes. "You know, my brain was damaged during the earthquake," she says, half joking. "You have to be patient with me. Otherwise I might miscount the dishes."

Before the earthquake, Yao lived in an ordinary family. Her husband ran a sand processing plant on the Min River. Yao helped by sifting and transporting sand, but later got sick and found an easier job making plastics bags. Their daughter studied hairdressing after high school. Their son attended middle school.

The earthquake buried Yao in debris. Her leg was struck by a crossbeam that fell in the bag factory. She was dug out several hours later and, after three days, was taken by helicopter to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, for an amputation. A transfer to a Guangzhou hospital followed, for treatment and counseling.

Memories of the earthquake haunted her. She often would wake in the morning yelling, "Another earthquake!"But then she'd laugh with the nurses after realizing nothing had happened.

A few months after returning to Yingxiu, Yao started waitressing at a restaurant for 800 yuan a month. Her husband earns 60 yuan a day at odd jobs. They hope to save enough for an operation for their daughter, who has vitiligo and is ashamed. They also want their son to attend vocational school in Guangzhou. Meanwhile, they're trying to be content.

"We lost our home and the sand plant, but we have our whole family, complete," Yao said. "And work makes me happy."

Newlyweds, Again

Before the quake, Lao Huang and his family led a leisurely life in a village section of Yingxiu called Zhongtanbao. Huang had a taxi business, driving passengers in a used minivan between Yingxiu and local tourist sites such as the city of Dujiangyan and the Wolong Panda Reserve. His wife sold snacks, stationery and toys at a shop. Their adult son drove a truck while his wife stayed home, caring for their two children. The family made extra money by renting out spare rooms in they bungalow they shared.

The two wives died in the earthquake, and their enviable home was left in shambles. But time heals. The children survived and the men, ages 52 and 27, remarried divorcees. Huang now guards the ruins of Yingxiu Primary School, which was leveled by the quake, for 60 yuan per 24-hour shift. His new wife, 45, likes him because he's diligent, doesn't gamble and shuns mahjong. She played matchmaker for the son, who married a 30-year-old. Both women moved to the shattered town from Dujiangyan for new lives with the father-son widowers.

Huang said neighbors envy his new family. But he can't forget the family he lost.

The son describes his former life as "first love at 17, married at 20, working from 21, family broken at 26." He was driving sand into town when the quake struck. He rushed to a kindergarten and found his children alive, then went home and cried out for his mother and wife. No one replied.

Scenes and sounds of family life have returned. While his new wife gives the grandchildren a bath, Huang busies himself in the kitchen. Xiao watches.