Reconstruction of Beichuan Middle School starts on anniversary

By Wang Jianfen and Qi Xiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-05-12 14:24

The reconstruction of Beichuan Middle School will kick off at 2:28 pm on May 12, 2009, exactly a year after the devastating earthquake demolished the original school. Liu Yachun, headmaster of Beichuan Middle School, hopes to make it one of the nation's best.

Beichuan Middle School was the hardest-hit school during the May 12 earthquake. It was complelely demolished. [chinadaily.com.cn]

Beichuan

Middle School was the hardest-hit school during the May 12 earthquake, with more than 1,300 students and teachers killed or missing. Since May 19, 2008, the surviving students and teachers were relocated to the courtyard of the Changhong training center in Sichuan's Mianyang City, acting as their temporary school.

The school now hosts nearly 3,000 students. About 1,300 of them are Beichuan Middle School survivors, and the remaining students enrolled later, according to Liu.

In only a year's time, they will return to Beichuan, with a brand new school beckoning.

Funded mostly by donations from Chinese all over the world, the new school will be built in Beichuan's Yongchang Town. It will cover about 225 mu (15 hectares) and is designed to be quake-proof. The construction will be completed on May 12, 2010, Liu told chinadaily.com.cn.

"We plan to hold the opening ceremony of the new school on September 1 next year," Liu said.

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