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HOUSES done in the style of the Qiang ethnic minority,with their carved beams and painted rafters,line bothsides of stone-resurfaced roads.A newly-constructedgarden-style residential quarter near a lake shines inthe early April sun,both keeping the elegance of thisancient town while adding new charm.The sadness seems to disap-pear;instead,the scene is suffused with vitality and warmth.
It's hard for Yao Xiangdong,who has lived here for 70 years,tobelieve the changes when walking through Shuimo Town.Locatedin Wenchuan County,southwest China's Sichuan Province,the townwas devastated just three years ago in an &0-magnitude earthquake.
It was May 12,2008.The 8.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Wen-chuan affected 10 provinces over a total area of 500,000 square km.It killed more than 80,000 people and left millions homeless.Theearthquake is believed to be the most destructive disaster to occursince the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
On September 19 of the same year,the State Council,China'sCentral Government,formallylaunched a three-year overall plan forpost-earthquake restoration and reconstruction in the affected areas.The plan,with an estimated cost of 1 trillion yuan ($152.9 billion),became one of the largest recovery projects in the world.
Three years later,as the project wraps up,Wenchuan is in thespotlight again,an example of stunning change created through aChinese model of disaster relief.
All-out assistance
The rubble and tents disappeared,to be replaced by new buildingsand widened roads across the region.One is amazed by the speed ofphysical and economic recovery of Wenchuan.
As early as August 2009,16 schools with seismic resistance ca-pability to absorb quakes up to a magnitude of 8.0 were completedand put in use with the help of aid partner Guangdong Province.The 14,000 Wenchuan children who had been sent to various placesacross the country to continue schooling after the quake were ableto return to their hometown.By May 2010,2,800 Wenchuan fami-lies had moved into the new,seismic resistant homes in the SunshineHomes Community,another project assisted by Guangdong.TheQiang style housing also marks the completion of all 333 projectsstemming from the earthquake.
"Not only in Wenchuan,but most projectsconcerning people's livelihoods in affected re-gions finished roughly two years after the earth-quake," said Qin Bin,Director of the EmergencyCoordination and Security Division of the Eco-nomic Construction Department,the Ministryof Finance."This is of great credit to the strongfinancial and technical support received."
Soon after the disaster,the government rap-idly allocated reconstruction funds of 300 billionyuan ($45.9 billion) and established a paired as-sistance program requiring that 19 provinces ormunicipalities,including Beijing,Shandong andGuangdong,provide at least 1 percent of theirannual fiscal revenue to the 24 counties severely hit by the Wenchuan Earthquake for three years.By March 2011,the total aid from the donorprovinces or municipalities exceeded 72 billionyuan ($11 billion).
Financial support also comes from differentlevels of government,social donations,assistancefrom Hong Kong and Macao,and bank loans.Bythe beginning of this year,the total investmentin completed projects surpassed 700 billion yuan($107 billion).
In addition to financial aid,working groupsthroughout the country,including design andplanning experts,arrived at those areas,ready tohelp within one week after the paired assistanceprogram was announced.This expertise broughtadvanced concepts of development and manage-ment to the affected areas.
"Such a large-scale reconstruction projectwould never have been completed without the 30years of experience collected after the initiationof reform and opening and the all-out help fromthe entire nation," said Qin.
Construction for the future
When Liu Hongbao,head of the GuangdongFoshan aid group,first visited Shuimo Town inWenchuan,it was the heavy pollution - not thedestructive debris from the quake-that shockedhim.
A remote western town,Shuimo used to be anindustrial base,having 63 high energy-consum-ing and heavy polluting enterprises.Planning forthe town's future,Liu,who holds a doctorate andis an expert on physics and material sciences,andhis aid group were not in a hurry to fix the holes,but started a careful investigation within the re-gion.Three months later,the group concludedthat the town needed to dig out its Tibetan andQiang ethnic cultural features and upgrade itsindustry to avoid facing serious pollution prob-lems later on.They removed 58 heavy pollutingenterprises from the town and created an eco-tourism economy drawing on Shuimo's ethniccultural flavor.
According to the construction plan,thenew Shuimo Town will function as a resortfor tourism,education,special agricultureand living.The newly-established blockswith special ethnic and cultural features at-tracted nearly 10,000 domestic and overseasvisitors during the Chinese Lunar New Yearin February 2011,creating a great tourismboom in the region.The new environmentalso drew two universities to establish cam-puses there.Some 10,000 university facultyand students became new residents of thetown,creating more job opportunities forlocal denizens.
"Restoration in the affected areas shouldnot merely reconstruct buildings,but givepriority to the protection of the ecologicalenvironment and ethnic culture to create asustainable way of development," said Liu.
"Bestowing local governments morerights to handle allocated funds for localneeds marks a special change in the post-disaster reconstruction," said Qin.As anaid official,Qin was dispatched to JiangeCounty in Sichuan in 2008 after the earth-quake.Having served as executive deputycounty head there for two years,he has seen the change in action.
Under the planned economic system ofthe past,the Central Government wouldtake care of everything for the restoration-an all-covered model.Funds distributedto planned projects would not allow for useelsewhere.This time,however,the CentralGovernment gave more flexibility to theprovincial governments that bear respon-sibility for the funds.Sichuan was able tospend the funds on selected projects thatmet various requirements.
Jiange,a northern agricultural county in Si-chuan,used to be a famous defensive pass dur-ing the time of the Three Kingdoms (220-280).The cultural heritage there has a history of morethan 2,000 years.However,it was unable to at-tract a large number of tourists due to weak in-frastructure.The county was severely hit duringthe earthquake and suffered a huge economicloss.Though Jiange had reconstruction funds of15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion),it was difficult tomeet the financial requirements for its 57 villagesand towns.
"While giving priority to projects involvingpeople's livelihoods," said Qin,"we emphasizedto convert the 'transfusion' (relief-oriented) aidinto the building of 'blood-producing' projectswith the funds,with a hope that the new con-struction will be able to bring in real benefits."
With more autonomy to allocate funds,thecounty government decided to adjust the res-toration plan by cutting off some small tourismprojects after careful consideration.Togetherwith savings from an office building project forthe county government,Jiange was able to poolfunds of 500 million yuan ($77 million) to de-velop the Jianmenguan tourism project.
The new fund allocation system provided lo-cal residents more flexibility to develop projectsin need.Private investment not only broughtmore capital and more effectively allocated re-sources,but also increased local incomes.
"The government mainly focuses on projectsconcerning people's livelihoods and should en-courage enterprises to take the lead for otherprojects under the market mechanism," com-mented Qin."It is important for the governmentto work hard on infrastructure and offer policysupport to attract more social resources."
Jiange County rebuilt a few historic attrac-tions including its ancient defensive pass,road-ways and villages,and invited private enterprisesto invest in tourism facilities like 4D theaters,4-star hotels and local hot springs.As a result,from its formal launch in May 2009 to the week-long National Dayholiday in October of the sameyear,the Jianmenguan tourism area attractied alarge number of tourists,with a tourism revenueof about 1 million yuan ($151,000).The county'srevenue in 2009 increased 170 percent over theprevious year.
"All-out assistance and paired aid programsmark the Chinese modal of disaster relief,whilethe participation of all social sectors under mar-ket mechanism is another feature in this model,"concluded Qin."The Chinese modal has createdstunning progress in the reconstruction and de-velopment in the affected areas."
It's hard for Yao Xiangdong,who has lived here for 70 years,tobelieve the changes when walking through Shuimo Town.Locatedin Wenchuan County,southwest China's Sichuan Province,the townwas devastated just three years ago in an &0-magnitude earthquake.
It was May 12,2008.The 8.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Wen-chuan affected 10 provinces over a total area of 500,000 square km.It killed more than 80,000 people and left millions homeless.Theearthquake is believed to be the most destructive disaster to occursince the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
On September 19 of the same year,the State Council,China'sCentral Government,formallylaunched a three-year overall plan forpost-earthquake restoration and reconstruction in the affected areas.The plan,with an estimated cost of 1 trillion yuan ($152.9 billion),became one of the largest recovery projects in the world.
Three years later,as the project wraps up,Wenchuan is in thespotlight again,an example of stunning change created through aChinese model of disaster relief.
All-out assistance
The rubble and tents disappeared,to be replaced by new buildingsand widened roads across the region.One is amazed by the speed ofphysical and economic recovery of Wenchuan.
As early as August 2009,16 schools with seismic resistance ca-pability to absorb quakes up to a magnitude of 8.0 were completedand put in use with the help of aid partner Guangdong Province.The 14,000 Wenchuan children who had been sent to various placesacross the country to continue schooling after the quake were ableto return to their hometown.By May 2010,2,800 Wenchuan fami-lies had moved into the new,seismic resistant homes in the SunshineHomes Community,another project assisted by Guangdong.TheQiang style housing also marks the completion of all 333 projectsstemming from the earthquake.
"Not only in Wenchuan,but most projectsconcerning people's livelihoods in affected re-gions finished roughly two years after the earth-quake," said Qin Bin,Director of the EmergencyCoordination and Security Division of the Eco-nomic Construction Department,the Ministryof Finance."This is of great credit to the strongfinancial and technical support received."
Soon after the disaster,the government rap-idly allocated reconstruction funds of 300 billionyuan ($45.9 billion) and established a paired as-sistance program requiring that 19 provinces ormunicipalities,including Beijing,Shandong andGuangdong,provide at least 1 percent of theirannual fiscal revenue to the 24 counties severely hit by the Wenchuan Earthquake for three years.By March 2011,the total aid from the donorprovinces or municipalities exceeded 72 billionyuan ($11 billion).
Financial support also comes from differentlevels of government,social donations,assistancefrom Hong Kong and Macao,and bank loans.Bythe beginning of this year,the total investmentin completed projects surpassed 700 billion yuan($107 billion).
In addition to financial aid,working groupsthroughout the country,including design andplanning experts,arrived at those areas,ready tohelp within one week after the paired assistanceprogram was announced.This expertise broughtadvanced concepts of development and manage-ment to the affected areas.
"Such a large-scale reconstruction projectwould never have been completed without the 30years of experience collected after the initiationof reform and opening and the all-out help fromthe entire nation," said Qin.
Construction for the future
When Liu Hongbao,head of the GuangdongFoshan aid group,first visited Shuimo Town inWenchuan,it was the heavy pollution - not thedestructive debris from the quake-that shockedhim.
A remote western town,Shuimo used to be anindustrial base,having 63 high energy-consum-ing and heavy polluting enterprises.Planning forthe town's future,Liu,who holds a doctorate andis an expert on physics and material sciences,andhis aid group were not in a hurry to fix the holes,but started a careful investigation within the re-gion.Three months later,the group concludedthat the town needed to dig out its Tibetan andQiang ethnic cultural features and upgrade itsindustry to avoid facing serious pollution prob-lems later on.They removed 58 heavy pollutingenterprises from the town and created an eco-tourism economy drawing on Shuimo's ethniccultural flavor.
According to the construction plan,thenew Shuimo Town will function as a resortfor tourism,education,special agricultureand living.The newly-established blockswith special ethnic and cultural features at-tracted nearly 10,000 domestic and overseasvisitors during the Chinese Lunar New Yearin February 2011,creating a great tourismboom in the region.The new environmentalso drew two universities to establish cam-puses there.Some 10,000 university facultyand students became new residents of thetown,creating more job opportunities forlocal denizens.
"Restoration in the affected areas shouldnot merely reconstruct buildings,but givepriority to the protection of the ecologicalenvironment and ethnic culture to create asustainable way of development," said Liu.
"Bestowing local governments morerights to handle allocated funds for localneeds marks a special change in the post-disaster reconstruction," said Qin.As anaid official,Qin was dispatched to JiangeCounty in Sichuan in 2008 after the earth-quake.Having served as executive deputycounty head there for two years,he has seen the change in action.
Under the planned economic system ofthe past,the Central Government wouldtake care of everything for the restoration-an all-covered model.Funds distributedto planned projects would not allow for useelsewhere.This time,however,the CentralGovernment gave more flexibility to theprovincial governments that bear respon-sibility for the funds.Sichuan was able tospend the funds on selected projects thatmet various requirements.
Jiange,a northern agricultural county in Si-chuan,used to be a famous defensive pass dur-ing the time of the Three Kingdoms (220-280).The cultural heritage there has a history of morethan 2,000 years.However,it was unable to at-tract a large number of tourists due to weak in-frastructure.The county was severely hit duringthe earthquake and suffered a huge economicloss.Though Jiange had reconstruction funds of15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion),it was difficult tomeet the financial requirements for its 57 villagesand towns.
"While giving priority to projects involvingpeople's livelihoods," said Qin,"we emphasizedto convert the 'transfusion' (relief-oriented) aidinto the building of 'blood-producing' projectswith the funds,with a hope that the new con-struction will be able to bring in real benefits."
With more autonomy to allocate funds,thecounty government decided to adjust the res-toration plan by cutting off some small tourismprojects after careful consideration.Togetherwith savings from an office building project forthe county government,Jiange was able to poolfunds of 500 million yuan ($77 million) to de-velop the Jianmenguan tourism project.
The new fund allocation system provided lo-cal residents more flexibility to develop projectsin need.Private investment not only broughtmore capital and more effectively allocated re-sources,but also increased local incomes.
"The government mainly focuses on projectsconcerning people's livelihoods and should en-courage enterprises to take the lead for otherprojects under the market mechanism," com-mented Qin."It is important for the governmentto work hard on infrastructure and offer policysupport to attract more social resources."
Jiange County rebuilt a few historic attrac-tions including its ancient defensive pass,road-ways and villages,and invited private enterprisesto invest in tourism facilities like 4D theaters,4-star hotels and local hot springs.As a result,from its formal launch in May 2009 to the week-long National Dayholiday in October of the sameyear,the Jianmenguan tourism area attractied alarge number of tourists,with a tourism revenueof about 1 million yuan ($151,000).The county'srevenue in 2009 increased 170 percent over theprevious year.
"All-out assistance and paired aid programsmark the Chinese modal of disaster relief,whilethe participation of all social sectors under mar-ket mechanism is another feature in this model,"concluded Qin."The Chinese modal has createdstunning progress in the reconstruction and de-velopment in the affected areas."