On 14th May 2009, SQR volunteers visited villages in the Wenchuan area.
Villagers setting up tents for the migrant workers they hired
The students in town were relocated to Luzhou and Chengdu, their new school will be put to use in September.
Caopo Central Primary School under construction
Matou Village and Longtan Village can be said to be better off than Lianghe. Using old Chinese wooden house structures, most houses in the village remained standing through the earthquake. There is a big mushroom-shaped plastic-covered greenhouse in Matou, and two white marble quarries in Longtan. As told by a villager of Longtan, if the road remains accessible, they won’t have to worry about buying rice or other things regarding to their basic needs. But again, they were also told not to grow too much.
On the way to Longtan Village; the houses downhill belong to Lianghe Village
Yang Kai yin, a 60-year-old resident of Longtan Village
She has four children: two sons work in Xichang, one son and a daughter stay at home, farming. Her house sustained itself in the earthquake, as did many houses in the village. After reinforcement, the house is now habitable. Though she owns a fairly large field and grow plenty of vegetables, it still concerns her that it is possible that she gets nothing back from it. “They say the village (government) is going to repair that road, and then I can’t get these vegetables and my goats out and sell.” Of the rice that government supplied her, she said, “we don’t have much left. What we have can sustain us through May to Mid-June. Then we’ll have to use a micro-loan to buy rice in town.”
Ni Qiulan, who lives in the same village, is in a similar situation
To repair the house, Ni’s family spent 20-30 thousand RMB, which is almost all the money they got from the government and micro-credit. Ni’s 3 grandchildren now go to school in Luzhou and Chengdu. Although the government takes care of the tuition fees and basic living expenses, “they still need some allowance, you know, when they go out with friends. Things in Chengdu are really expensive,” she said. This family hasn’t bought any rice since the earthquake. The rice provided by the government, “is not enough if you use rice for every meal. We cook corn and rice together so that it lasts longer.” At the time of writing they have about 25kg rice left, and Ni thinks it can support them until mid-June.
One problem for Longtan villagers is traffic. The hill motorway connecting Matou and Longtan is often damaged by rain and landslides, especially in the rainy season. We were told that this road has been repaired twice since it first opened after the earthquake, and the residents have to walk 2 hours to get to Lianghe to buy groceries if they can’t hitchhike.
Liu Sixiu (pink backpack) chatting with Lianghe villagers on her 2-hour walk back to Longtan
Collapsed Middle School at the memorial site of Yingxiu
The collapsed Middle School in Yingxiu, the township at the epicentre of the quake, has been turned into a 5.12 memorial. Nearly every building in Ying Xiu was destroyed and only 3,800 of the 16,000 residents survived, according to official figures.
It has taken a whole year to excavate the enormous piles of rubble that covered the valley where the town is located. The survivors, who are all now in prefabricated housing, hope that work will soon start on their new homes. Local government officials predict that Ying Xiu will become a big tourist attraction for Chinese who want to remember the May 12 disaster and visit the key sites.
The Remains of Yingxiu Middle School
