2012-05-05 Chengdu, road to Wolong, Ya'an

Scenes from the city of Chengdu, earthquake damage on the road to Wolong, and from the city of Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China.

Chengu has a population of fourteen (!) million people and is experiencing explosive growth. City life is hectic, but things are more relaxed in the cities' parks.

While travelling to our first research site, Wolong, we passed through the area of the epicentre of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. At 2:28 in the afternoon of May 12, 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake occurred, killing more than 69,000 people and destroying 80% of nearby buildings. Thousands of school children died due to shoddy construction. The ruins of the Xuankou school remain in place as a memorial to the disaster.

The road from Xuankou to Wolong was largely destroyed by tremors and landslides from the earthquake, and we travelled ~20km along a dirt road above a fast-flowing river gorge.

To access our second research site, Bi Feng Xia, we stayed in the bustling city of Ya'an which features a bridge upon which a complex of stores and tea houses has been built in the Chinese architectural style.