TALES OF GRIT AND SURVIVAL

Ten years after the Wenchuan earthquake its survivors continue to rebuild their lives

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the brutal, raw numbers that provide the backbone to the story of the Wenchuan earthquake of May 12, 2008 - and in a strange way finally not to truly appreciate the scale of the catastrophe.

We are told that when the magnitude 8 quake shook Sichuan province at 2.28 pm that day, and in the days and weeks that followed, over 69,000 people died, about 17,000 people were left unaccounted for and nearly 375,000 people were injured.