Earthquake memorial to open in north China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-27 20:23

SHIJIAZHUANG: A memorial park built on the ruins of a deadly earthquake that killed 240,000 people 33 years ago will open to the public Wednesday in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province.

A spokesman for the earthquake bureau in Tangshan said Sunday the park, covering about 40 hectares, had been built on the ruins of the site of the Tangshan Rolling Stock Plant.

Major works inside the park are a 300-meter-long memorial wall bearing an epitaph and inscribed with the names of those who died in the quake, a two-story institute to disseminate knowledge about earthquake science and responses in case an earthquake strikes, as well as a museum displaying materials such as photos of the 1976 earthquake.

The park, which began construction in June 2008, had been envisioned to demonstrate the tenets of "Revere nature, care for human life, pursue science, and remember the past," said the spokesman.

Tangshan, an industrial city on the rim of Bohai Sea more than 200 km to the east of Beijing, was struck by the devastating earthquake in the early morning of July 28, 1976. Measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, the quake killed 242,769 people and injured 164,851 others.