A woman carries her 3-month-old baby on her way back through Yingxiu town in Wenchuan county, two weeks after the 2008 earthquake razed the settlement. Zhou Chao / The Yangtze river Daily

Many residents of the rebuilt Yingxiu town now earn a living from tourism. Huang Yiming / China Daily

One man's incredible story shows the quake not only took away but also gave.

Yingxiu

Editor's note: The quake changed the lives of many, especially those living right at the epicenter. We revisit Yingxiu, seeing how locals adapt to the changes in their life.

The earthquake took away Yang Yunqing's family members and his livelihood, but also gave him new ones. The disaster killed nine of Yang's relatives and his wife of 40 years. It also destroyed his two excavators, which he operated for a living in Sichuan province's Yingxiu town. Rather than mourn, Yang and his son rushed to a nearby power plant and pleaded on bent knee to borrow its excavators. They spent the following days using the vehicles to rescue 10 people trapped in the rubble.

Rather than return to his previous trade, Yang started Epicenter Restaurant, at first to feed rescuers and volunteers, and later to serve tourists who visit Yingxiu's quake ruins and the Cave of 10,000 Dead mass grave.

Yang started Epicenter Restaurant in the temporary prefabricated housing put up months after the quake and moved into something more permanent in March 2009. Diners eat under a canopy just across the canal from the ruins of Xuankou Middle School.

"Business boomed at first but hasn't been good since 2011 and actually started tapering off in 2009," Yang says.

"The town's population is only about 4,000. Fewer tourists come and more eateries have opened."

The diner served up to 30 tables a day at its peak but now serves about three. There were only a handful of restaurants when Yang relocated Epicenter Restaurant into a permanent building. He estimates there are now more than 100.

Also, the expressway that opened on the quake's first anniversary means traffic to Wenchuan no longer has to pass through Yingxiu. So most Yingxiu visitors come for the day but do not stay overnight.

"We barely pay the bills," Yang says. "Festival crowds keep us going."

The 100-square-meter restaurant has only one indoor table. Yang rents outdoor space from a local tourism company.

The interior is decorated with photos of him rescuing quake victims. Several glass cases atop liquor cabinets hold signed helmets from Shanghai and Shandong firefighters. They are coated with dust.

"I named our restaurant Epicenter to remind people of Yingxiu's suffering and the help from outside," Yang says.

One of those he rescued with the firefighters was Jiang Yuhang, who had been buried for 124 hours.

Jiang became a firefighter.

"He was saved, so he wants to save others," Yang says.

Jiang, a native of Guizhou province, was napping in a dormitory with two other toll-booth operators who did not survive when the earth juddered.

"He's the luckiest man I know from Yingxiu," says Yang, who receives a visit from Jiang every year.

A firefighter official from Shanghai brought Yang to the city so he could overcome his trauma after the disaster and offered him two new excavators.

Yang refused."I asked for a fire truck instead," he says. "We didn't have one then. Several fires burned many houses down."

Yang became the driver, but he retired two years ago.

"You need to rush to a fire as soon as it breaks out," he says. "It's a young person's job."

The fire truck still zips around town. Before the quake, Yang earned an unstable income operating his excavator, selling sand scooped from the river and running a grocery store. He made about 200,000 yuan ($32,500) a year, he says.

The entrepreneur earned about 120,000 yuan when the restaurant business peaked but took home only about 25,000 yuan last year after paying his staff.

"Fortunately, I run the restaurant in my new house," he says. "If I had to rent, I could keep just enough to feed and clothe myself."

His family depends on the eatery.

"My son and son-in-law wouldn't have work otherwise. They need the income for my grandchildren," he says.

His son Yang Hejiang says he is still adapting to working at the restaurant. The 33-year-old dropped out of school when he was 15.

"I got used to operating the excavator after eight years," he says. "Managing the restaurant is new to me. I have to deal with all kinds of people, some of whom complain. And I don't ever really clock out, like I did before."

Yang Yunqing also relies on the restaurant income to do charity, he says.

A Chinese-American read about Yang online and traveled to Yingxiu to meet him and put him in charge of dispersing three annual donations of 80,000 yuan for poor survivors. The money flows through government coffers but cannot be dispersed without Yang's signature.

"I can't help the needy in need if I'm needy," he says. "After all that has happened, I just want my family to have enough and to be able to help others. Then I'm OK."

After the quake, Yang had to drink himself to sleep every night, and obsessed over reuniting with his wife in the afterworld.

The 63-year-old's children encouraged him to remarry. He did last year, to 55-year-old Liu Mingyu, who was moved when she saw him on TV.

"I admire my husband," Liu says.

"He's a hero. I feel safe with such a kindhearted man. He knelt to beg for the means to save others and worked day and night rescuing others, despite the tragedy that befell his family."

(China Daily 05/10/2013 page28)