A resident stands on the site of collapsed buildings in Longmen town on April 22, 2013. The town was the epicenter of the earthquake that devastated Ya’an city just two days earlier. Zhou Qiang/ For China Daily

Dedicated officials

"I forgot my sickness during those tough days," said Yuan, the 55-year-old Party chief of Datong village in Lushan, who has esophageal cancer. His illness was diagnosed before the quake, and in the past three years he has undergone four operations and lost 16 kilograms in weight.

Despite his illness, Yuan was the busiest person in Datong in the first days after the disaster. He was relieved to discover that none of the 1,900 residents had been killed, but eight villagers had been badly injured, and 62 sustained less-serious injuries. Half of the houses in the village - whose buildings were mostly erected in the 1950s and 60s - were destroyed.

Yuan organized 57 Party members in the village who undertook initial rescue work before the arrival of external help - assessing the villagers' needs and losses, and allocating food and water.

"Taking care of the crops was very important, because the harvest would directly influence the villagers' incomes the next year. The other key task was to evacuate residents from landslide-prone areas, because aftershocks are also fatal," Yuan said. "I couldn't sleep until I was satisfied that the work had been completed successfully."

All the farmers in Datong left homeless by the quake have now moved into new houses, and the villagers have started planting kiwi fruits and organic vegetables under the guidance of agricultural technicians. The annual personal income in the village is now about 11,000 yuan ($1,700), almost double the figure in 2013.

"He (Yuan) worked around the clock for about four days. His persevering spirit made us confident about the future," said a villager surnamed Li. "The earthquake changed many people's outlooks and values. It made us cherish life and time, and made us love each other."

The good Samaritan

Hu Guoxiang, the owner of a small store in Lushan's Longmen town, donated all her available stock of food, water and daily necessities to her fellow villagers. She also prevented soldiers from the People's Liberation Army's from rescuing stock she had in a ramshackle warehouse because she was concerned the building might cave in on them. "Compared with life, money is nothing," the 48-year-old said.

For many residents, the earthquake marked a new beginning in life and thought. Xinchang, a community in the Anshun Yi ethnic town in Shimian county, was also devastated. The old wood-and-mud houses, shared by humans and their domestic animals for hundreds of years, were flattened.

They have been replaced by modern villas built in the architectural style of the Yi ethnic group, and countryside tourism and tea cultivation are now the main sources of income for the villagers.

"I never imagined that I would live in such a modern house, equipped with a flushing toilet and served by a clean, accessible tarmac road, and go to work every day like an urban resident," said villager Bai Yulong.

Bai was one of many locals who wrote messages on the external walls of their new homes expressing thanks for the help provided by the local government and charity organizations. "This is our voice. The words come from the bottom of our hearts," he added.