Master strokes

2013-06-21 08:57

In this information technology age, most people are better at typing than handwriting. But a brushmaker is determined to keep the tradition alive.

Snapshots

2013-06-21 08:57

Same but different

2013-06-14 09:35

In May 1988, a woman gave birth to four baby girls in Hangzhou. The city went wild with the sensational news. The babies were reportedly the first monovular quadruplets ever recorded in China's history. Experts estimate the chance of healthy monovular quadruplets at 1:13 million. Photojournalists have been recording the growth of the quadruplet sisters with photographs every year. On May 23, the famous sisters celebrated their 25th birthday.

Snapshots

2013-06-14 09:35

Snapshots

2013-06-07 09:18

Moulding minds

2013-06-07 09:18

In the north of Beijing, a Tibetan-style compound stands out among soaring skyscrapers. It is the home to Beijing Tibetan Middle School, the largest secondary school for Tibetans outside of the Tibet autonomous region. The school has more than 800 students from different prefectures in the Tibet autonomous region. Launched in 1987, it has trained nearly 5,000 middle and high school students from Tibet. Many of them have returned to Tibet to help develop the autonomous region.

Snapshots

2013-05-31 08:54

Images

2013-05-24 09:08

Company Special: Nestle to expand investment nationwide

2013-05-24 09:08

Nestle continues to expand investment in China, demonstrating its "confidence in and commitment to the Chinese market", according to the management of the world's largest food and beverage company by revenue.

Images

2013-05-17 08:38

Rising from rubble

2013-05-10 08:52

Five years on from one of the world's most destructive earthquakes - which claimed up to 90,000 lives and devastated vast swaths of Sichuan province - we revisit the disaster zone to follow its road from ruin to recovery. And after the April 20 quake in Ya'an, we find out what lessons learned from five years earlier helped mitigate the latest disaster.

13 towns have a rebirth

2013-05-10 08:52

Ding Yishu says her reconstructed hometown is no different from the European settlements she has seen on TV. But that wasn't the case before the 2008 earthquake devastated her native Wenchuan county, which sat at the epicenter of a disaster that left up to 90,000 dead or missing.

Lasting legacy as villagers rejoin the world

2013-05-10 08:52

Ma Qian'guo is thrilled to see Luobo, China's oldest Qiang ethnic village, rise from the rubble.

From the ashes

2013-05-10 08:52

Yan Ke and his new wife laughed and cheered as they flew a kite in a spacious public park in Dujiangyan, a city famous for China's oldest irrigation system, Taoism and pandas. Nearby, people sat reading, enjoying picnics or playing games, while others walked their dogs. Almost five years after a magnitude-8 earthquake devastated Sichuan province, life in this city and its surrounding plains and mountains has finally returned to normal. Virtually every building downtown is new. Its ancient streets have been rebuilt. Leaving their destroyed homes behind, residents are now adjusting to life in new apartments. "It hasn't been easy," Yan says calmly. "The process has been one of rebirth for us." The 29-year-old refuses to use such expressions as "quake zone" when referring to his home city.

Museums educate, commemorate

2013-05-10 08:52

Museum curator Fan Jianchuan believes relics not only remind us of our past but also point to our future. "If I live another 30 years, I will see another major quake along the Longmen fault line," Fan told China Daily in March. Weeks later, on April 20, Lushan county was rocked by a magnitude-7 temblor that killed almost 200 people and injured another 12,000. Fan's forecast came from studying relics in the 22 halls of China's largest private museum, which he founded outside Chengdu. He cited the 2008 Wenchuan quake displays as some of the most prophetic before Ya'an's temblor. "These relics are a wakeup call to Chinese," he says of the 100,000 or so artifacts in his museum from the 2008 Wenchuan quake, which left 90,000 people dead or missing. "They inform decision-makers. That's my museum's most important lesson."

Turbine maker turns around

2013-05-10 08:52

Much has changed for technician Li Zhongyu and his co-workers since May 12, 2008, when he saw part of the factory explode in the Wenchuan earthquake and went searching among ruins for his girlfriend in Hanwang town. The 29-year-old Hubei native married her last year. She now lives at their new home in Bajiao township, Sichuan province, caring for their newborn son. Dongfang Turbine Co Ltd relocated to Bajiao, from Hanwang, a company town built around the plant. Workers say the relocation of their destroyed factory and rebuilding of the quake zone has changed their lives. Hanwang lost about 17,000 of its 43,000 residents, mostly migrant workers, as a result of the quake. Many died and others left town because there was no work without the plant.

Restoring history, bit by bit

2013-05-10 08:52

The Wenchuan earthquake created many new relics - ruins and debris since converted into memorials and museum exhibits. It destroyed many ancient artifacts, too.

'Our town is more beautiful than ever'

2013-05-10 08:52

Leading a town from ruin to restoration is no easy task, Hongbai town's former top official says. Huang Zhuo headed Shifang city's finance bureau in Sichuan province before the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and was responsible for allocating recovery funds until he became Hongbai's Party secretary in 2011. The 40-year-old left his post to join Shifang's land resources bureau less than a month ago, soon after talking to China Daily and before the April 20 Ya'an quake. "Everyone has a house, and industry has recovered," he says. "I'm happy to see our town becoming better every day." Thanks to the post-2008 reconstruction, Hongbai's buildings can withstand magnitude-8 temblors, Huang says. The town did not experience any problems during the recent tremor, aside from landslides. No injuries were reported.

Monk gave peace of mind to expectant mothers

2013-05-10 08:52

Monk Su Quan does not want the 108 children born in his temple after the quake to thank him by visiting.

A new career, a new family, a new life

2013-05-10 08:52

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.