Powerful earthquakes rocked Derong County of Sichuan province, China on August, 2013. The quakes of 5.1 and 5.0 on the Richter scale didn’t leave any casualties, but wreaked havoc in the communities of this rural province. According to local authorities, of the total 344 houses damaged, 311 were badly destroyed, leaving them uninhabitable.

Yet, when a team of Nepali and Indian journalists touched down on the third week of May 2016, one could hardly see any traces of the earthquakes. In place of the once devastated settlement, a new town with state-of-the-art facilities had already sprung up—with amenities and infrastructure including roads, solar power and water supplies. The larger reconstruction plan aims to convert the town into a tourist hub. Today, the area boasts 10 hotels for visitors in addition to the newly-built residences which were constructed with the option of being converted into home-stays.

Driving into the province from the town Qing De, you pass through an army of labourers working steadily to expand the single-lane road. There will soon be a polished highway meandering into this once-aloof province. It is here, even before having reached our destination, that it becomes plainly obvious: The Chinese are not just reclaiming what they lost to the quakes but they are truly building back better.  

Tourism leads the way

The largely Tibetan region of Sichuan is considered a relatively backward region because of the constraints of its topography. However, its rich, natural beauty and culture has helped transform this region into a tourism hotspot.

The opening of the Daocheng Yading Airport (4,411 m) in 2013, the world’s highest-altitude civilian airport, has served an important role in promoting tourism in the region. In the recent years, according to the Sichuan provincial government, the tourism industry has been one of the main sources of revenue.

After our team reached the airport on a chilly May 14, we took a five-hour drive to reach the scenic Daocheng Yading. Yading, often known as the world’s ‘last Shangri-La’ and ‘the last pure land on the blue planet’, is also renowned for the holy peaks named after three bodhisattvas—Chenrezig, Jampayang, and Chenadorje.  The southern peak Jambeyang of 5,958m is the avatar of Manjusri; the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. The eastern peak Chenadorje, of the same height represents Vajrapani, the Bodhisattva of Wrath. The northern peak, Chenresig of 6,032m, the highest of the trio, symbolises Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Mercy.

On the way, you will pass a town called ‘Town of Sangria’ where there are several home-stay facilities. “For a village previously dependent on agriculture, tourism has been the main source of income since 2000. And it has been gaining momentum every year, nearly 1.35 million tourists visited last year,” said a local staff of a home stay facility.

Despite the rocky terrain, good roads have already reached Yading. The snow peaks here remind one of Nepal’s Himalayas. After reaching the base station, one has to take the electric bus to take a closer look at the mountains and viewing points have also been arranged for visitors at strategic outlooks.  

Tourism has become the central pillar in promoting rapid development of the region in the past few years. In 2015, the gross income of the whole Tibetan region stood at RMB 39,296 billion with a rise of 21.8 percent on year to year basis, which is 2.5 times that of that of 2011. The region received 37 million tourists in 2015, nearly twice of 2011. According to the Chinese government’s statistics, more than 1,300,000 jobs were created by tourism in Tibetan region of Sichuan alone.

Rebuilding with purpose

This, however, is not the only success story China has been able to pull off of late. In May 2008, when the Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan earthquake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale wrecked Sichuan province, it killed 69,197 people, with 18,222 went missing. The earthquake left about 4.8 million people homeless. On November 6, 2008, the central government announced that it would spend 1 trillion RMB (about US $146.5 billion) over the next three years to rebuild areas ravaged by the earthquake, as part of the Chinese economic stimulus programme. Overall, about 41,130 projects for reconstruction and rehabilitation were undertaken, and nearly 99 percent of it was completed within a two year period.

The Chinese government took on the earthquake, not just as an immense setback, but also as an opportunity to reconstruct all public-service facilities in the affected areas with high seismic standards and modern equipment. Now, to stand here a few years later, it becomes plainly obvious that no obstacle is too big if there is concerted political will. As Nepal seeks to pick-up the pieces from its own devastating natural disaster, it would serve the government well to take copious notes from its northern neighbours. The destruction wrought by the quakes might have been immense, but not all is lost. Sichuan stands testament.