Rebuilding challenges China 6 months after quake

BEICHUAN, China — Sealed off by guards and a chain-link fence ringed with barbed wire, the moment when an earthquake ripped through this region and destroyed Beichuan remains perfectly preserved.

Only a few orange- and blue-roofed buildings, sandwiched between towering piles of rubble, stand amid the mud and rocks that cover the valley floor.

The town was so shattered by the 7.9-magnitude temblor in Sichuan province on May 12 that the government has decided to abandon it and rebuild. The only question is where.

Six months after the worst quake to hit China in three decades, the future remains uncertain for many survivors. Jobs are hard to come by, and government aid payments are about to end. Many people are still in temporary housing.

The earthquake killed 69,227 people and left 17,923 missing and presumed dead. More than 5 million were left homeless, and China suffered $123 billion in direct economic losses.

Among the hardest hit areas was Beichuan county, a region of small mines and tea plantations whose forested hills were home to 160,000 people. The town of Beichuan saw half its 26,000 residents killed and 70 percent of its buildings destroyed.

Along a mountain road overlooking the valley, some survivors have set up stands to sell photos of the town before and after the disaster.

"After the quake, a lot of people came to Beichuan — foreigners and Chinese. On the weekends, hundreds of people come. This is a permanent memory for all people," said 24-year-old Yu Bing.

His display of laminated photos documents the first moments of disaster: a huge crack where the road buckled, a fallen woman bleeding, gray dust covering everything.

"No one should forget," he said quietly as he sold a photo for about $1.50 to a visitor from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

On a nearby table are incense sticks and the recording of a Buddhist prayer. A sign urged visitors to light a joss stick and pray for the dead.

No one has been allowed into Beichuan except for residents, who are required to show ID. Government leaders have said Beichuan will become the site of a national monument to victims and an earthquake museum.

Xie Chenyu, a 45-year-old tea grower with ruddy cheeks and braided hair, lost her home when the quake caused a landslide that blocked a river and created a lake. She sells quake photos to tourists, taking in up to $3 a day.