Tangshan Earthquake

At 3:42 a.m. on 28 July 1976 a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale (about 7.5 in moment magnitude) struck Tangshan, Hebei, with its epicenter in the urban area. At 6:45 p.m. that day a strong 7.1 aftershock hit nearby. The quake came while people were asleep and, in little more than ten seconds, nearly flattened an industrial city of a million people: buildings collapsed in great numbers, and transport, communications, water and power were all cut off, with Tianjin, Beijing and other places also affected. It killed 242,769 people and seriously injured more than 160,000, making it one of the deadliest earthquakes of the 20th century. The Party Central Committee and State Council quickly organized relief; more than 100,000 People’s Liberation Army officers and soldiers, with medical teams and engineers from across the country, rushed to Tangshan, and many soldiers dug through rubble with their bare hands to rescue the buried. Most of the more than ten thousand miners trapped underground at the Kailuan coal mine were saved. The people of Tangshan rebuilt through self-reliance and hard work. By 1986 a new Tangshan with a rational layout and full functions had largely been completed, and the city received the United Nations Habitat Scroll of Honour. The earthquake also advanced China’s seismological research and disaster-reduction work, and stricter seismic building standards followed. Today Tangshan has the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Monument and the Earthquake Ruins Memorial Park, where people mourn the victims every year on 28 July. The “spirit of earthquake resistance” (selflessness, sharing hardship, perseverance and pressing forward) has inspired generation after generation.