During the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the three-story school building that is part of the old Bailu school was elevated three meters. However, the main building was not damaged, and it became known as “the strongest school building”. With the guidance of their teachers, 1,046 students of the junior high and primary schools successfully evacuated the building. It was called a miracle.

In Bailu town, at the foot of Longmen Mountain, the new Bailu Town Central Primary School features European-style buildings and corridors. Down the slope of the mountain, 1.5 kilometers away, stands the original school building. It became known as “the strongest school building” during the devastating Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. The building earned its “strongest school” name after miraculous survival of 1,046 students during the earthquake. None of them were hurt or killed in the earthquake.

Heroic teachers

In the office of Li Zhong, the principal of Bailu Town Central Primary School, a plaque reads: “National Earthquake Relief Heroic Collective”. During a recent day in April, Li was revising the school’s Youth Day activities. One of the activities was to teach patriotism in front of the former school building.

"After we moved into the new school in the autumn of 2009, we began to consider taking our former campus as our education site,” Li said.

During the earthquake, a three-story school building that is part of the old Bailu school was elevated three meters. However, the main building was not damaged, and it became known as “the strongest school building”. With the guidance of their teachers, 1,046 students of the junior high and primary schools successfully evacuated the building. It was called a miracle.

"One year later, the students began to walk out of the shadow of the earthquake, and the former school building did not conjure up terrifying scenes any longer,” Li said. “It has since then become a site for the students to learn earthquake hazard avoidance.”

In front the old school building, construction of an earthquake memorial hall is underway. It is scheduled to open this year.

"At the time, I was teaching Chinese to the ninth-graders in a classroom at the farthest end of the third floor,” Dean of Students Guo Qiang said while pointing to the old school. “That batch of students will take the college entrance exam this year, and they visited me during the Spring Festival.”

Guo’s Chinese class had 46 students. Since the classroom was the farthest from the staircase on the third floor, he and the students were the last ones to evacuate the building.

Free room and board

On a recent day in April, Tang Tao was thinking about a math problem in his exercise book in a sixth grade classroom. “In two months, I’ll take the entrance exam to the junior high school. I need to work harder,” Tang said.

Bailu Town Central Primary School has 365 students, and 15 of them are resident students. Tang, 14, is one of them. He lives in Tangba village, but he only goes home on weekends.

"The school takes good care of the resident students. The accommodation and board are both free for them. What I can do is study harder to repay the school,” Tang said. “Even the dorm necessities are provided by the school. We don’t need to bring them from home.”

In the eyes of teachers and the students, Tang has made great progress. Dean Guo said the boy was one of the students who escaped the earthquake three years ago.

"Look, this is my goal,” Tang said as he opened his pencil box. A piece of paper stuck to the inside of the box. On the paper, Tang had written a note, claiming he would try to enter the best junior high school in Pengzhou. He drew a smiling face with a red water color pen.

On the blackboard at the back of the classroom was a line of large words written in red chalk: “To be our best selves!”

"We escaped from the strongest school building. We, of course, should be our best selves,” Tang said.

Some female students were skipping rope on the playground, including 12-year-old Liu Yujing’s French teacher, Misha.

Misha, a retired French teacher, came to Pengzhou and Bailu town after the earthquake, and she supported the cost of Liu’s education. Misha continued to return to the town each year to visit with the students she has supported.

"Last month, Aunt Misha taught me some simple French when she came to our school,” Liu said. ”I’m still learning.”

Liu said her dream is to become a French translator, so that she can contribute to Chinese and French goodwill.

Rebuilding

Bailu Town Nine-Year School had a primary school and a junior high school, and 1,046 students were enrolled before the earthquake. When the earthquake occurred, the fault line ran directly through the school, elevating a newly-built school building three meters. However, it did not collapse. The teachers’ dorm 10 meters away had completely collapsed. The school building which could “grow taller” was known as “the strongest school building” in the massive Wenchuan earthquake. Close to 100 tourists daily visited the building.

Following the earthquake, the school moved into pre-fabricated buildings to continue teaching. In May 2009, the new Bailu Town Central Primary School was under construction, and in September of that year it opened for classes.

The new school buildings can resist the impact of a magnitude-8 earthquake. The new school has an area of 1.32 hectares and a building area that is more than 5,200 square meters in size. It is one of Pengzhou’s more complete primary schools in terms of its facilities. Since its junior high school has been merged with Tongji Town Middle School, Bailu Town Nine-year School was changed to Bailu Town Central Primary School. Currently, 365 students are enrolled.