Buildings to withstand quakes

WHEN A CEREMONY WAS HELD ON SUNDAY TO remember those who died in the Ludian earthquake that jolted the southwestern county in Yunnan province on Aug 3, what strikes us the most is the question: how could a quake with a magnitude of only 6.5 on the Richter Scale result in 617 deaths? With another 112 people still missing.

That most of the houses at the epicenter and large areas around it were leveled to the ground suggests that the majority of the houses in this area were below the earthquake-resistance standard, even though the place is known to be on a seismic belt.

The same is true of the 2008 quake in Wenchuan county in Southwest China's Sichuan province, which caused more than 80,000 deaths, including those people still officially missing; and the one in Yushu county of West China's Qinghai province in 2010, where the death toll was nearly 3,000 including those missing.