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Stark festival for earthquake zone
Source: Xinhua |
January 24, 2009, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RED lanterns held high on poles before rows of temporary houses; the New Year pictures drawn on house walls; couplets conveying best wishes pasted on door panels - all signal the imminent arrival of Chinese New Year for millions of quake-zone residents in Sichuan Province.
The Spring Festival is set to be a rather different holiday for the quake-affected families this year as many of them lost their homes and relatives in last May's earthquake.
"Spring Festival is the most important event of the year for the Chinese, we surely should observe it seriously," said Liu Xianrui, in a community of temporary houses near downtown Mianzhu City, one of the worst-hit areas in the 8.0-magnitude quake that left more than 80,000 dead or missing and millions homeless.
Liu, 60, lives in a 10-square-meter prefab. Liu's original house in the seat of Mianzhu collapsed in the quake, but the family luckily suffered no casualties.
About 50,000 people from urban Mianzhu were evacuated to the Jiangguan Road community of temporary housing after the quake, which destroyed or damaged about 90 percent of the houses in the city.
The weather is the coldest at this time of the year, but residents in the temporary houses have to be very careful when burning coal to keep warm to prevent fires. Liu relies on a government basic living allowance of 270 yuan (US$39.40) per month.
In Leigu Town, Beichuan county, also a hard-hit area, 69 ethnic Qiang families have moved to their new houses, mostly two or three-story buildings, before the Spring Festival.
To promote Qiang culture, the county rebuilt the Jina community area in accordance with Qiang traditions.
Jiang Chunhong, an ethnic Qiang, said she moved to her new two-story house in the hillside Jina community in Maoershi Village, at the end of last month.
The house cost her 100,000 yuan with a government subsidy of 20,000 yuan.
"If tourism becomes hot here, it will be easy for us to return the loans borrowed from banks," said Song Guobin, whose house is several meters away from Jiang's.
Song's 16-year-old son died in the quake after his classroom in the Beichuan Middle School collapsed.
The Spring Festival is set to be a rather different holiday for the quake-affected families this year as many of them lost their homes and relatives in last May's earthquake.
"Spring Festival is the most important event of the year for the Chinese, we surely should observe it seriously," said Liu Xianrui, in a community of temporary houses near downtown Mianzhu City, one of the worst-hit areas in the 8.0-magnitude quake that left more than 80,000 dead or missing and millions homeless.
Liu, 60, lives in a 10-square-meter prefab. Liu's original house in the seat of Mianzhu collapsed in the quake, but the family luckily suffered no casualties.
About 50,000 people from urban Mianzhu were evacuated to the Jiangguan Road community of temporary housing after the quake, which destroyed or damaged about 90 percent of the houses in the city.
The weather is the coldest at this time of the year, but residents in the temporary houses have to be very careful when burning coal to keep warm to prevent fires. Liu relies on a government basic living allowance of 270 yuan (US$39.40) per month.
In Leigu Town, Beichuan county, also a hard-hit area, 69 ethnic Qiang families have moved to their new houses, mostly two or three-story buildings, before the Spring Festival.
To promote Qiang culture, the county rebuilt the Jina community area in accordance with Qiang traditions.
Jiang Chunhong, an ethnic Qiang, said she moved to her new two-story house in the hillside Jina community in Maoershi Village, at the end of last month.
The house cost her 100,000 yuan with a government subsidy of 20,000 yuan.
"If tourism becomes hot here, it will be easy for us to return the loans borrowed from banks," said Song Guobin, whose house is several meters away from Jiang's.
Song's 16-year-old son died in the quake after his classroom in the Beichuan Middle School collapsed.
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