China News Agency, Tangshan, July 28th: ​​The story of the survivors of the Tangshan earthquake: starting again 46 years ago

　　Author Bai Yunshui Meng Chao

　　At 3:42 a.m. on July 28, the biological clock "wakes up" Han Yawen ahead of schedule.

Every year on this day, at this moment, she wakes up on time.

As soon as the sun was shining, Han Yawen rushed to the memorial wall of the Tangshan Earthquake Relic Memorial Park, holding flowers, and talking about the family with the four relatives on the "wall".

　　Forty-six years ago, at 3:42 on July 28, 1976, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Tangshan City, Hebei Province, killing more than 240,000 people and injuring more than 160,000 people.

On that day, 17-year-old Han Yawen lost his parents and grandparents.

　　"In April of that year, our family returned to Tangshan from the army with my father. Just three days after moving into the building, the earthquake happened." Han Yawen recalled that she became the only survivor who climbed out of the building. "But the disaster didn't stop me from growing up".

　　Like many witnesses of the Tangshan earthquake, with the help of all sectors of society, Asiana literature has achieved some success.

Later, she became a medical worker. After retirement, she chose to join the Red Cross volunteer team in Tangshan City, and successively formed a helping pair with 5 empty-nesters and 1 family who lost their only child.

　　"I don't have the opportunity to be filial to my elders, so I try to help those in need as much as possible," said Han Yawen. In 2015, she established the Red Cross Volunteer Service Team, the first private enterprise in Tangshan.

Today, there are more than 200 Red Cross volunteers.

　　On the same day, flowers were placed under the memorial wall of the Tangshan Earthquake Site Memorial Park.

According to Zheng Xiangjun, director of the Tangshan Earthquake Site Memorial Park Management Center, the memorial wall consists of 5 groups of 13 walls with a height of 7.28 meters and a width of 19.76 meters in front of the memorial avenue, representing the date of the Tangshan earthquake on July 28, 1976.

At present, a total of 247,574 compatriots and heroes who died in the earthquake relief are engraved here.

　　In front of this 500-meter-long memorial wall, the people who came here looked at the names on the wall, or bowed solemnly, or chanted homely.

　　At the same time, in the Tangshan Paraplegic Sanatorium, which is 3.8 kilometers northwest from the Tangshan Earthquake Relic Memorial Park, several paraplegic patients in the Tangshan earthquake are undergoing rehabilitation training.

Li Dongmei, 59, also participated in a wheelchair.

　　As the youngest high-level paraplegic in the Tangshan earthquake, Li Dongmei said, "Actually, I have been fond of sports since I was a child. I was 13 years old when the Tangshan earthquake hit me in the head and my lumbar spine was seriously injured. At that time, I felt that my life was hopeless. "

　　In 1984, the first National Games for the Disabled was held in Hefei, Anhui Province.

Hearing this news, Li Dongmei, who was paralyzed in bed, suddenly had a goal to fight for.

Since then, Li Dongmei has started high-intensity training to fulfill her childhood "champion dream".

　　After unremitting efforts, Li Dongmei won the wheelchair racing championship in the 2nd National Disabled Games held in 1987.

Since then, she has won a total of 39 gold medals in various sports events held at home and abroad.

　　On the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the Tangshan Earthquake, according to the Tangshan Emergency Management Bureau, Tangshan has built a total of 70 earthquake emergency shelters that meet national standards, which can accommodate 1.441 million people for emergency shelters, meeting the requirements for emergency shelters for 15% of the urban population. It has established 41 national comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration communities, and Tangshan has become one of the most "earthquake-resistant" cities in China.

　　For 46 years, every brick, stone, grass and tree here have recorded the past of this land.

That day, staring at the names of relatives on the memorial wall, Han Yawen was reluctant to leave for a long time.

But she knew that for those who had been through that disaster, everything had started anew.

(Finish)