CHINA yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province that killed more than 80,000.

    The magnitude-8 earthquake struck Wenchuan on the afternoon of May 12, 2008. About 4.45 million were hurt in China’s worst quake in more than three decades.

    “It’s the fifth anniversary of the earthquake as well as Mother’s Day. Hard to forget those young faces lying under the school buildings,” said Fengguo De Wuhou 1117 on a microblog.

    The People’s Daily newspaper called the earthquake a “grave catastrophe” but said the recovery was a symbol of China’s strength.

    “In less than three years, the Wenchuan disaster zone has completed the task of reconstruction with impressive speed,” the newspaper said in a front-page commentary.

    China Daily said the country had learned lessons from the disaster as schools and hospitals were able to withstand another quake in the region last month.

    That 6.6-magnitude tremor centered in Sichuan’s Lushan County killed 196 people, with 21 missing and more than 13,000 injured.

    (SD-Agencies)