"Wailing wall" in north China witness to lingering grief of 1976 quake

Source: Xinhua | 05-11-2009 17:06

SHIJIAZHUANG, May 11 (Xinhua) -- It took her 30 years to find her brother's name after the massive quake that changed the fate of a city in north China, a time long enough for her black hair to go gray.

"Finally, I found your name," murmured 56-year-old Zhou Xiangde on Monday as she held a bunch of yellow chrysanthemums and wept at the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Wall.

The 300-meter-long black marble wall in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, has also been called the "wailing wall" of China. It bears the names of 242,000 earthquake victims, including Zhou's younger brother Tangsheng.

As the country marks Tuesday, the first anniversary of the devastating May 12 earthquake in southwest China, the date bears other, sadder meaning to people in Tangshan like Zhou. The scars left by the quake there, more than three decades ago, are again being torn open.

A magnitude-7.8 earthquake rocked the city during the night of July 28, 1976, killing more than 242,000 people, leaving 164,000 severely injured and millions homeless.