Source: China Daily

04-24-2009 15:24

MIANYANG, Sichuan: Liao Bo and Zheng Haiyang, once classmates, yesterday met for the first time in front of the debris of the former Beichuan Middle School since the devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake last May razed the once bustling building to a huge pile of debris.

Liao Bo

Both wheelchair-bound ever since the quake, the 17-year-olds lit red candles kept on the ground to pay tribute to their schoolmates and teachers who did not make it out of the debris alive.

More than 1,300 of the Beichuan Middle School's 2,900 students were killed in the quake.

Stories of courage and heroics from the school, broadcast across the nation, moved millions to tears.

Liao, a senior high school student who lost his left leg in the quake, came all the way from a rehab center in Beijing to pay tribute to the dead.

Zheng, whose smiling face under the debris, published in newspapers across the globe, touched millions of hearts, was also left partially paralyzed.

Despite being severely injured, Zheng helped several injured students to safety.

Liao and Zheng used to share a desk in their class of about 35 students, just about a handful of whom survived the quake.

There were no tears rolling down their cheeks when the two friends met for the first time after the disaster. The pair and several other survivors of their class have never met in person since the quake.