Sichuan village recovers quickly after quake

Yuan Fengying, 50, quietly shredded mulberry leaves for newborn silkworms in her home while her husband Yang Wenhua, 52, dried peanuts harvested from their fields in the courtyard.

The scene on Monday morning in the bamboo and mulberry tree-heavy Xinhua village in Weiyuan county, Sichuan province, was idyllic.

But it would look abnormal to visitors, as a magnitude-5.4 earthquake which killed one person and injured 63 took place the previous morning, with Xinhua as the epicenter.

"I was terrified when the earthquake jolted the entire house violently and my granddaughter Liu Yile (only one year and seven months old) cried loudly," Yuan said.

But to the relief of Yuan and her husband, there was not a single aftershock.

"Many earthquakes which have taken place in Sichuan since the (magnitude-8.0 2008) Wenchuan earthquake have had aftershocks," Yuan said.

"As there is no aftershock, all the 852 villagers resume life as before," she said.

Xinhua is under the administration of Longhui, a town five kilometers away.

The gate to Longhui High School, which villagers' children attend, had security guards posted at noon on Monday.

A student allowed to leave campus to go through a procedure for a school insurance policy said classes had not been suspended, for the earthquake did not wreak havoc at school.

After the earthquake took place, employees of an office in charge of buildings in the Longhui town government had paid a visit to residences in the town.

"As the damages to residences were slight, the town only set up several tents in the Longhui High School on Sunday. The tents were taken away on Monday because people seeking shelter did not feel any aftershocks and left," town Party chief Yu Hua said.

Quan'an town in the city of Neijiang borders Xinhua and was one of the hardest-hit areas by the earthquake.

But no traces of the quake could found in the town market on Monday morning.

Vendors selling fresh vegetables, oranges, watermelons and underwear were plentiful, and the area was active.

Chen Wenlong, chairman of the Quan'an People's Congress, said only three houses built in the 1980s collapsed in the town.

Sixty-nine people were put up for the night in 10 tents set up opposite the town primary school on Sunday. As there were no aftershocks, all left the next day and the tents were taken away by the town government, he said.

During breaks on Monday, pupils frolicked in the playground of the school.

Wu Xiuying, 65, is a resident of the town whose two grandchildren attend.

"Classes have not been suspended since the earthquake," she said.