The devastating 2008 earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China resulted in the collapse of thousands schools, killing more than 5,000 students. Now, more than a year and a half after the disaster, one school is set to begin anew and rise from the rubble.
Students at one school in northern China are being forced to leave the safety of their dormitories for crowded rented housing. Why? Well it turns out that the dormitories aren't in fact as safe as they should be. And with lingering memories of schools collapsing in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake the school authorities feel it's a case of better safe than sorry. But, as BON's Neela Eyunni reports, not everyone's happy with the decision.
After thousands of school building collapsed in 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese government spent hundreds of millions dollars to improve the safety of school buildings. However, as BON’s George Liu had found, some of the money had been spent elsewhere.
The death toll from the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti on Tuesday is unknown, but it's thought tens of thousands are dead and the humanitarian crisis has only just begun, with hundreds of thousands more left without basic medical supplies and drinking water.
It's a tragedy that's hit particularly close to home for the Chinese nation, after an earthquake in Sichuan province killed nearly 70-thousand people.
Zhouqu is close to the border between southern Gansu and northern Sichuan province where the devastating Wenchuan earthquake happened in 2008. According to Xu Shaoshi, Head of Ministry of Land and Resources, this mudslide has something to do with the Wenchuan earthquake and the drought earlier this year which further loosened the mud and rocks in the mountain.
China is currently grappling with the aftermath of a big earthquake in Qinghai Province, but 2 years ago this month, a far more devastating quake struck. The Sichuan earthquake of May 2008 left 90,000 people dead or missing, but it also struck at the heart of panda country, where the majority of the world's wild and captive pandas live. BON's Tom Spender finds out how the survivors are faring.
It was reported recently that the US has donated 100 million dollars to Haiti because of the earthquake.
This amount causes much attention in China because US only donated 500,000 dollars for the great Sichuan earthquake in 2008, in which more than 80 thousand people died.
Our researcher Helen Hu has been gauging Chinese people’s reaction online. We can join her now in the news room.
A few days ago, people across China commemorated the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, which killed some 68,000 people and left another 17,000 missing. At the time, the government was praised for its quick response. Months later, some parents chastised local authorities for the shoddy construction of schools. Two years after the quake, BON’s Tony Zhou explains how things are going…