The Other China: Beyond the Olympic Spotlight in Earthquake-Stricken Sichuan
As Olympics begin, citizens demand to know why quake felled so many schools.
SHIFANG, China, Aug. 10, 2008— -- Far from the pageantry and competition of the Beijing Olympics, there remains a dramatically different scene in China: one of loss and recovery in earthquake-stricken Sichuan Province.
President Hu Jintao declared that "hosting a successful Olympics ...[is] now the top priority of the country." As the world focuses on the Olympics, villages around the city of Chengdu are still sifting through the rubble from the magnitude 7.9 earthquake on May 12.
Early last week, the ground shook again in Sichuan, the epicenter of the May earthquake that killed at least 70,000 people. This time, the tremor measured 4.3 on the Richter scale. Three aftershocks followed last week.
Shifang, a small town in Sichuan Province, is a part of China that exists far beyond the Olympic spotlight. On the way from Chengdu to Shifang, the roads were lined with stacks of bricks and wire, precious resources salvaged by townspeople still digging through the rubble three months later.
A tractor sits where houses once stood, ready to pull out what little they can save. A woman carries a basket on her back to collect materials they can use to rebuild.
"Over here," Chen Weijie said, pointing at a high pile of rubble. "That's where my home once was."
As he sifts through the piles, Chen proudly wears a Beijing Olympics t-shirt. For many Chinese, the Olympics symbolize a triumphant effort by the Chinese government to debut China on the world stage. This is the same Chinese government that grief-stricken parents hope to hold responsible for the schools that collapsed, leveling 7,000 classrooms and killing thousands of children.
Anger still festers in Shifang. "How could the schools have so easily crumbled?" one father asked ABC News last week.
Local government leaders have repeatedly promised to get to the bottom of why nearly every school in the earthquake zone collapsed. Parents continue to demand answers from the Chinese government about why the public buildings fell "like tofu."
After the quake, many parents accused local officials of corruption and negligence when the schools were constructed. As the months wear on, there is little evidence that the government will conduct a full investigation on the building construction. Inspection of the rubble thus far has been cursory, families complained. Bulldozers have already cleared away the debris of collapsed schools.
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