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When a massive earthquake leveled the northern Chinese city of Tangshan 30 years ago, it left a legacy of gratitude and benevolence among survivors, which has also been seeded among their offspring.

Gratitude lingers with anguish as the industrial city in Hebei Province some 200 kilometers east of Beijing this week marks the 30th anniversary of the mishap that killed over 240,000 lives on July 28, 1976.

Survivors of the mammoth earthquake are trying to find the people who rescued and helped them.

Zhang Xiaodong, who received medical treatment 30 years ago in Luoyang, central Henan Province, biked to the city to find his doctors and nurses.

"I will always be grateful that you gave me a second life. I can only work hard to pay society back," Zhang said.

Zhang is not unique. Eight old people traveled by bike thousands of miles from Tangshan to southwestern Yunnan Province to convey their gratitude to their rescuers and helpers in 10 provinces along the journey.

On July 1, 58 orphans who spent their childhood at an orphanage in Xingtai City of Hebei Province paid a visit to teachers who took care of them there.

"The teachers forbade their own children from coming to the orphanage for fear their calling for mom might hurt us. They treated us even better than they treated their own children," Han Jiansheng, one of the 58, recalled.

"We remember their kindness and will tell our children all about it," Han said.

Deep gratitude, however, goes beyond verbal expression. The best way to thank, the survivors find, is to repay society.

Dang Yuxin, an orphan of the dreadful quake, volunteered to serve in a Chinese medical team to help survivors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Jia Li, another orphan of the quake, has since become an expert on water conservation. Since 2000, his survey team has completed more than 40 tasks, generating savings of more than four million yuan (500,000 U.S. dollars).

He said, "As an orphan who received so much love from society, I have a strong sense of shouldering a mission to pay back the nation."

The younger generations in the city are carrying on the legacy of gratitude and benevolence.

For 30 years a group of workers from the Tangshan Water Supply Company, either quake survivors or their offspring, have taken care of a widow named Sun Rongfang, who lost her husband and daughter in the earthquake.

"The disaster deprived me of my family members, but these kind-hearted workers are just like my sons and daughters. Now I feel so happy," Sun said.

A college student in Tangshan launched an Internet homepage to show his own gratitude and create a platform for others to express thanks. The homepage also carries news and stories about almsdeed.

Nearly 300,000 people from all walks of life, including 140,000 soldiers and officers, rushed to Tangshan to provide disaster relief after the earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale razed the city early in the morning three decades ago. They dug out 16,400 survivors from the rubble and debris.

A week after the quake, 20,000 medical workers were dispatched to Tangshan. Besides, more than 100,000 seriously injured survivors were sent to other cities by air and rail for medical treatment.

Seismologists believe absence of anti-quake measures in buildings was a major factor behind the great devastation in the Tangshan earthquake.

China has since worked out new construction criteria. However, most houses in rural areas remain vulnerable to even moderate quakes.

China Seismological Bureau has pledged to help in rebuilding and retrofitting them in the coming years.

The bureau will launch more pilot projects in the countryside in the next five years, which will enable houses to survive earthquakes measuring up to 6 on the Richter scale, according to Du Wei, vice-director of the Bureau's Seismic Hazard Prevention and Mitigation Department.
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2006)