When the tsunami struck Indonesia's Aceh Province in December, thousands of ethnic Chinese who were a mainstay of the local economy fled to the city of Medan, 400 kilometers away.

The powerful wave destroyed their shops and homes and killed around 800 of the Chinese community that has been rooted in Muslim-majority Indonesia for centuries, working mainly as merchants and traders.

Three months after the disaster, they are traveling back to the provincial capital Banda Aceh to start all over again.

Given their dominance in trade, the return of the minority group in the staunchly Muslim Aceh is seen as a key sign that the province is beginning to get back onto its feet after the destruction of the tsunami, which is believed to have killed about 220,000 people in Aceh.

"Their return is a sign that the economy is running again. They play a vital role in Aceh's economic recovery," Nazamuddin, an economist at Banda Aceh's Syiah Kuala University, said.

A keen business spirit is behind the desire to start over in Banda Aceh and leave Medan, the bastion of ethnic Chinese on Sumatra Island and where many had sheltered with friends and relatives after the tsunami.

"We decided to return together because it's hard to make a decent living in Medan," said Budi Hartono, who owns an auto parts shop in the city's once-bustling Peunayong market where 70 percent of stores were owned by Chinese.

Hartono said business had been booming since he reopened his shop a week ago but getting stock was a problem.

"After the tsunami there are many broken cars so people need to replace the spare parts but we have to convince suppliers in Medan to deliver goods without us having to pay in advance," said the 30-year-old father.

Those who have chosen to re-build their lives in Banda Aceh have been allocated three rows of semi-permanent government houses in Peunayong.

"It's better than nothing," said one of the occupants, motorcycle taxi driver Liong Fu Tjin.

The Chinese community has had a troubled history in Indonesia and been the target of bouts of bloody communal violence, including during political and economic upheaval in the capital Jakarta in 1998 that led the downfall of President Suharto.

They were subjected to severe restrictions on political or religious activity during Suharto's 32 years of autocratic rule, but were given free reign in the economic sector.

This allowed them to prosper.

The bitterness has mostly been absent from westernmost Aceh, though, and Chinese Indonesians have lived there in peace for decades. Gho Sui Hwa, a guardian of the Dharma Bhaktia Buddhist temple at Peunayong, said Chinese were returning to Aceh because they considered it home. "I was born here and many others were also born here. We want to play our part in the re-construction of Aceh," he said.

But even as Aceh's Chinese community was struggling to its feet, the ethnic group was dealt another blow last week on the nearby island of Nias, when another powerful earthquake struck.

Many of the estimated 1,300 victims were ethnic Chinese traders, whose concrete-built stores were the first to collapse as the magnitude 8.7 tremor jolted the island.

(China Daily April 7, 2005)