1
Yingxiu was the only town which was nearly ruined after the earthquake, but it was also the only place where reconstruction was soon to replace the ruins.
Yingxiu was perhaps the only place in the world which has received such level of attention to post-disaster reconstruction. That was initially reflected in the cooperative planning and design of the construction departments of Sichuan and Guangdong.Although media reports made statements such as“masters of architecture gathered to redesign Yingxiu，”it was in fact the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Dongguan that did most of the work and contributed greatly to the project.It could even be said that that is where it all began.On July 17，2008，members of the institute's reconstruction team were brave enough to station themselves in Yingxiu and to initiate the design of an overall plan by doing mapping work and carefully collecting pieces of data.Dangers in the affected areas, and especially in the earthquake's epicenter, included aftershocks, falling rocks and landslides which could occur at any time.Engineers worked relentlessly around the clock for seventy days to go through every inch of land, soothing the hearts of locals at the expense of personal safety in this exceptionally difficult situation.The first achievements of preliminary planning were seen on September 27，2008 when the sweat and blood that was spilled produced valuable foundations for urban planning.
These plans were adjusted further and the first draft of the overall reconstruction plan was completed.
The urban reconstruction plan of Yingxiu was developed later：the additional input, effort and research of the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning＆Design Institute（south-west branch）expanded on the depth of the first draft and it became an early version of the reconstruction project.
After six whole months of work, such countless bits of effort produced fruitful work. Good news came in April 2009，when an overall reconstruction plan was finally approved by the authorities of Sichuan and Aba！
That was an honor and a repayment for all of the efforts that had been made. Once the results that this long process had produced came in, they seemed good enough to please even a perfectionist.
Honors and awards provided even further recognition for the work；on December 9，2009，the Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning＆Design Institute won the“2009 Sichuan Outstanding Urban and Rural Planning and Design Project”prize. On December 27，2009，only eighteen days later, the Dongguan City Construction Planning Institute awarded the 2009“Guangdong Provincial Urban and Rural Planning Award for Design Excellence”to the overall reconstruction plan of Yingxiu.
Of course, the teams of expert architectures whose work would make Yingxiu proud forever, were like luminous light which shone over that piece of devastated land, providing feelings of warmth and comfort, helping the town recover from the shadows of its dreadful fate and revealing its bright smile.
A phrase which went around by word of mouth was that“great experts stood behind the little town，”and it mostly referred to the architectural elites and their design work, while the wisdom and heroic strength of people from different sectors the reconstruction was also a great contribution. For the people of Dongguan, the satisfaction levels of officials from Sichuan and Aba had only reached the top of a small hill while they were determined to drive them up towards the peaks of high mountains.The emotional expression of that beautiful imagery was remarkably manifested in the following few sentences：
The nationwide post-disaster reconstruction template The Model of Guangdong Aid Projects.
It was a Museum of Contemporary Earthquake-resistant Construction and an Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Exhibition area.
They show the lessons we have learned from the disaster and bring us wisdom：these landmark projects will be of benefit for future generations.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao, Guangdong provincial party secretary Wang Yang, Sichuan provincial party secretary Liu Qibao and other political leaders expressed their fervent hope for the successful reconstruction of Yingxiu but meanwhile, reconstruction workers of Dongguan had set a lofty goal themselves.
In order to fulfill that goal, the planning and design needed to be exceptional, the incorporation of advanced urban construction practices had to be nearly flawless.
When the project was put into action, no efforts or financial resources were spared：the large scale of the actions taken by elites was about to lead a collective blueprint. At the beginning, the Urban Planning and Design Institutes of Tsinghua University, Shanghai Tongji University and three other institutions were invited to compete in creating the best urban design project.In April 2009，a large symposium was held on“Security, Advanced Technology and Excellence in Environmental Protection.”Participating organizations from various national and international organizations in charge of earthquake-resistant planning, design and construction in earthquake-prone areas included the State Ministry of Construction, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as international institutions from China, Japan, New Zealand, Italy and Taiwan.
Finally, established architects from China and abroad were invited to talk about the design of specific buildings.
That final event turned out to be the most exciting one.
The work of these experts of architecture included：
·A Youth Cultural Centre, designed by Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei and his team, which was crucial to the project.
·Yingxiu Qi Yi High School was designed by Wu Liangyong, member of the Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, who had assisted Liang Sicheng[34]to establish the Architecture Department of Tsinghua University.
·A collection of memorials of the earthquake's epicenter, as well as the Yingxiu Central Hospital were designed by He Jingtang, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Dean of the School of Architecture at South China University of Technology.
·The Yingxiu International Academic Exchange Center was designed by the architects of the Chinese National Theatre：the renowned Paul Andreu from France and his team.
·Tongji University was in charge of coordinating the work and for conducting final inspections of the exterior design of buildings.
Some went on to lament the reconstruction process was so unique that it would go down in the history of Chinese architecture. In fact, the word“Chinese”could also be replaced with“world.”Was there another project of such scale which had compiled such expertise before?Was there another project where every little detail was designed in such modern ways?
The New Yingxiu was planned to accommodate no more than twelve thousand people.
That reconstruction plan involved the use of advanced design concepts, advanced earthquake resistance technology, advanced building materials, advanced construction techniques……in a word, the project was“fundamentally advanced.”
Many said that the endless re-drafts of the project strived for perfection. But that was also the most alarming part：it slowed down the beginning of the reconstruction.
It was not until May 2009 that the overall plan for reconstruction was finalized and approved.
In the Report on the Work of the Government of 2009，Premier Wen Jiabao made instructions that all effort should be made for the objectives and tasks of the reconstruction work to be completed within two years, while the original plan was intended to take three.
Reconstruction workers were sent to the Wenchuan earthquake area from nineteen cities, including thirteen in Guangdong（but not Shenzhen）. At that time, other compassionate cities had already begun the reconstruction and some even would finish the work.
Oh, how much hope and great pressure all of that brought！The New Yingxiu would be so beautifully stunning, but was not that because the reconstruction task was nearly impossible?
2
It was the sound of songs that made me go over to the town market.
That was a lively spot in the magnificent Yingxiu.
I came from No. 2 Minjiang West Road.The town market was located in the city center where four roads merged into one；all of them radiated from that central point which provided an overview over four directions.The main traffic road was Dongguan Avenue, Ertaishan Road came from the east, while on the West you could see No.2 Dongzong Road.I came from the south.
I do not remember when the snow had quietly stopped, the skies had cleared up and the white layers covering trees and ridges had started looking like deliberate décor.That gave me a clearer view of the market town buildings.They were examples of traditional and modern architecture with elements of regional culture in the overall style of the New Yingxiu.The roofs were yellow and that was combined with shades of grey, while the exterior of the walls was decorated with local stone mosaic in tree trunk brown；you could feel the lavish mood of simple harmony that they conveyed from a distance.At first glance, the two-floor buildings seemed like wooden houses you would expect to see in a forest.
This artistic effect was achieved through using steel structures which resembled wooden ones：in fact, they were built over modern steel frameworks. I knew that it was the Southwest Institute of Design which was behind this type of architecture that showed respect for design preferences of locals.The entire project used modern, earthquake-resistant technology：the roofs were constructed with reinforced concrete panels, beams；columns were built of materials such as welded H-beams and steel, which were light, durable, ductile and strong.That made construction quality exceptional.
I knew who was in charge of managing the construction project as well：that was a young man, called Shi Zhichuan. He came to Yingxiu as workers of China Construction Seventh Engineering Division[35]at the age of 24.He took the train from Guangzhou to Yingxiu on July 29，2009.The day before, the manager of the Tianma River Project in Huadu District, Guangzhou suddenly found him at work and asked：“Would you like to work for the support of Yingxiu?”He replied almost without giving it a second thought.Just like the majority of the workers, he departed almost immediately and there was no time for his family to properly send him off.His wedding was originally scheduled for on December 20，2009 but it had to be postponed for a long time.
When Shi Zhichuan first came, the ruins were still not cleaned up. That was a particularly difficult task, since the removal required a digging depth of four to five meters and it was the first time for young workers to take up such responsibility.Another task, which sounded more like a fairy-tale, was the construction of a whole town from scratch in only five months.
At that time, that building was still called“farmers market”and it was Chen Linzuo, who renamed it to“town market”later. After the reconstruction, locals would walk by, point at the building and joke：“Hey that place looks cozier[36]than our own homes！”
In Sichuan dialect，“cozy”carries a sense of extrinsic beauty.
Even people who had travelled extensively would feast their eyes on the market when passed through the town；they would go off of their way to stop and take a closer look at it, exclaiming that they had never seen such an exquisite farmers market, it seemed like a“five-star”shopping area……
There should not be any objections to the statement that this is the most beautiful farmers market in China. If you asked its architects and designers why that was, they would give you the following explanation：the reconstruction of Yingxiu was designed to be classified as 5A and every building in the area must meet such standard.
In other words, the town market was also a part of the architectural landscape and a facility for tourists.
And yet, I think that its heartfelt and most profound meaning lay in the expression of deep love and the comfort it provided to the kind people of Yingxiu who had suffered through the earthquake. Such a lovely and pleasant environment made it easier to bid farewell to pain, dilute sad memories and start a new life.
One unique feature of the market was that you could walk in through an L-shaped street which links it with the outside. The commercial street had a contemporary design：a long, straight corridor connects the main shopping area to street shops.All of that was surrounded by a wider shopping area as links stretched out to the streets as well.A side effect of the new commercial area was reflected in the increased amount of residents around it.
The reconstruction of the farmers market in 2009 was the one of the first series of community development projects that were to be executed by Dongguan workers.
Facing these simple but gorgeous buildings, I could not help but think of the conditions in the dormitories of workers where Shi Zhichuan and other workers lived in：their narrow boarding rooms with shared bathrooms accommodated four to six people in a room. Posters, such as“Construction of Facades，”“Records of the Reconstruction”，“Notice of Changes”and“Node Detail”were hanging on the walls.The workers did not spend much time in these rooms because it was usually past ten o'clock when they went back to their rooms and everybody headed to the worksites early in the morning since work began with the sunrise.In that sense, weren't they just like gaokao[37]students on an exam day, when they stared at the walls trying to memorize the content while buttoning their shirts up on in the morning?
I could tell you the names of many of these workers：Hu Depeng, Zheng Yi, Xiao Bin, Liu Guopan, Li Jiefeng, Lu Jun, Zhou Jieping, Qian Qing, Huang Xiangqing, Liu Guibao, Yuan Xiangdong, Luo Guanghui……
3
The interior decoration of the town market is simply magnificent. The first floor is for farmers who sell products like fruit, vegetables, meat and eggs；today, this space is used as one of the celebration locations for Babayan.The venue is spacious, as described earlier from Dongguan Avenue, and on that day it was filled up with large, round tables in an orderly manner.Staff in colorful costumes were about to bring tablecloths, cups and flowers.White cloths, beautiful flowers, the design of the roof, along with lanterns and ribbons gloriously hanging on the walls created a joyous atmosphere.
The second floor is for department stores, just regular businesses. The celebrations on Babayan were so big that businesses could not miss the opportunity to hang banners all around, vertically and horizontally；their big, clearly printed characters read：New year, new apartments, new shopping festival for Yingxiu！
You could buy a large variety of products ranging from：daily necessities such as a small sewing kit, a key chain or a fruit knife to household appliances like a large TV, a refrigerator or a washing machine；it was dazzling to think you could have all of them readily available. A cute fluffy rabbit with white fur, short tail and pointy ears captured the hearts of children who gathered around it, pointing at it, smiling, jumping and giggling.I watched them quietly, consciously smiling：“Set off like a heroic tiger and bring back happiness like a rabbit does[38]，”it was the Year of the Rabbit and people were full of hopes and joy, so the children needed a lucky rabbit to partner up with.Seeing all of that suddenly made me feel like I was in a bustling city mall and it was easy to forget that it was surrounded by a land of great misfortune.
That was when I recalled the song that made me come to Yingxiu.
And suddenly, it was ringing loud in my ears.
There was a lively crowd in the direction that it came from；I went closer and found myself standing in front of a group of dancers who were rehearsing under the blaring sound of drums. Around twenty people were diligently working under the guidance of an instructor.The group was a mix of young men and women of similar ages：they were clearly amateurs who made a living through working as farmers or traders during weekdays.Their performance costumes included red shirts and green skirts with vivid colors and they wore pleasant smiles on their faces.I gave ear to their songs and then kept listening for ages；the pitch, the tone, and the clear pronunciation of these singers created an elegant and refined sound.The songs were mainly Tibetan and Qiang folk ones：their glee and unrestrained warmth was contagious, they made your heart unconsciously beat faster and cheered you up.
“Today is your birthday, my motherland[39]……”
This is a song that I like. Listening to it causes a great excitement which is difficult to contain and then you start singing along with the drums and the music.
