World

China: Many Schools Remain Unsafe after Quake

by Jordan Yerman | December 26, 2008 at 05:40 am

160 views | 12 Recommendations | 6 comments

More than half a year after the massive earthquake in China's Sichuan Provence, officials are saying that many schools remain unsafe.

Many of the schools listed as unsafe are considered to be dangerously so, not only not meeting any sort of building code, but not even coming close.

About 33,58-million square metres of primary and middle schools had safety problems, state media quoted Lu Yongxiang, vice-chairperson of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, as saying.

This was 2,5% of the country's total school buildings, or the equivalent to 134 Bird's Nest stadiums in floorspace, he said, refering to the showcase stadium at the Beijing Summer Olympics.

"About 90% of the dilapidated houses are in the country's central and western parts," Lu was quoted by China Daily as saying.

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Paschen

at 05:49 on December 26th, 2008

That is a lot of square metres to fix, a task that seems incredible and difficult to achieve with in a short period of time.

I think from what I read so far that it may take at least another 5 years to get things back to normal...

The problem and frustration is that in the mean tome we could have more victims..

kellieannef

at 14:40 on December 26th, 2008

This is a young girl I met in Shenzhen China, her family owned the small shop on the corner near the school where I worked. After being in the area for a few months I realized the girl was "ting bu dong" (I am not sure if I spelled that correct in pinyin) and that her family was having a hard time hoping for her future. I assured them that around the world many people like her had promising futures, and they should assist her in meeting others like her/them.

kellieannef has contributed a photo to this story.

Mindy _Ricketts

at 20:39 on December 26th, 2008

Grade three students at a private school in Shenzhen take a break to play between lessons.

Mindy _Ricketts has contributed a photo to this story.

Amitjha

at 21:46 on December 26th, 2008

Thats really strange , chine is doing well on infrastructure development front, hope they will take some action before big tragedy.

g_hoy

at 21:51 on December 26th, 2008

the date is wrong, it's actually from October 2008 in Zhejiang province

g_hoy has contributed a photo to this story.

mijia282000

at 23:17 on December 27th, 2008

After the breakfast, the mother rushed her child off to school. This story took place in Wuhan, China. The young mother sent her daughter to school, rush to go to work.

mijia282000 has contributed a photo to this story.