Chinanews.com, Ningxia Haiyuan, December 16th, title: Visiting the site of the "Global Earthquake": "New City" has not forgotten "old history"

  Author Yang Di Majie

  On December 16, 1920, the "Global Earthquake"-Haiyuan Earthquake, which was simultaneously recorded by 96 seismic stations in the world, broke out.

This 8.5 magnitude earthquake triggered landslides and cracks, killing more than 270,000 people and wounding countless people.

  On December 16, 2020, the reporter went to Haiyuan County, Ningxia, to visit the site of the "Global Earthquake" and feel the changes in this county a hundred years later.

Zhen Liu.

Photo by Ma Jie

  The epicenter of the Haiyuan Earthquake, about 40 kilometers away from Haiyuan County, recorded this devastating disaster in detail: the earthquake caused landslides, river blockages, and traffic interruptions. Haiyuan County and Ganyanchi City were all destroyed. The shock wave energy released was equivalent to 11 Tangshan earthquakes, which affected 17 provinces and municipalities including Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai, and the affected area reached 2.51 million square kilometers.

  Driving through the territory of Haiyuan County, you can see torn mountains and ravines from time to time.

The Haiyuan Earthquake has carved indelible scars on the earth. After a hundred years of vicissitudes, these ruptures, displacements, and dislocations caused by the earthquake are still well preserved, forming the seismic barrier lake, the cielgou trough section, and the small mountain earthquake rupture. Earthquake sites such as the belt, Jiucai Great Landslide, Shaomaying Earthquake Willow, and Ganyanchi Wall.

  In Shaomaying Village, Haiyuan County, an earthquake willow grows quietly. Its trunk was torn in half due to the Haiyuan earthquake, but its "wound" continued to take root and sprout, and its branches flourished.

This earthquake willow has also become a spiritual symbol for the people of Haiyuan to rebuild the new city from the ruins.

  After a hundred years, Haiyuan has been reborn from the ashes, realizing a huge change from devastated to completely new urban and rural appearance.

Nowadays, walking in Haiyuan County, there are row upon row of buildings and pedestrians bustling. You can hardly imagine that there was a huge earthquake that was rare in history a hundred years ago.

  But history has not been forgotten by the people of Haiyuan.

"We remember for a hundred years, in order to better cherish the present." Xu Haining, member of the Standing Committee of the Zhongwei Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Haiyuan County Party Committee, introduced that the Ningxia Haiyuan Earthquake Museum was completed and opened in 2010; the Haiyuan Earthquake Relics Park and the Haiyuan Earthquake Museum's upgrade and reconstruction project will start in 2020 In the same year, the International Academic Seminar on the 100th Anniversary of the Haiyuan Earthquake and the filming of the "Haiyuan Earthquake" were also held in the same year, which enhanced the public’s awareness of earthquake prevention and mitigation and enhanced Haiyuan’s comprehensive capabilities in earthquake prevention and disaster reduction.

  The great earthquake also left a unique seismic cultural resource for Haiyuan. Yang Wenwei, a doctoral supervisor in the School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering of Ningxia University, suggested that Haiyuan’s seismic resources should be developed, the earthquake tourism industry should be promoted, and the first disaster prevention and seismic reduction industrial park in Ningxia and even the northwest should be built, making Haiyuan a base for popularizing seismic science in Ningxia and China. (Finish)