Located less than one hundred kilometers (62 miles) from the world famous Jiuzhaigou Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sichuan province, Zhouqu was described in the County Annals as having a balanced ecosystem, clean air, rich and dense forests, and abundant natural resources. It was also said to be the home of several rare animal species, such as the giant panda, golden snub-nosed monkey and an antelope. The area was also famous for producing Sichuan pepper, walnuts, persimmons, apples and the black wood ear—an edible fungus.
However, the nighttime mudslide turned the former Shangri-la into a mass grave and a jumbled mess of debris and mud.
The real death toll is unknown; official media reported 1,254 deaths and 490 disappearances as of Aug. 16, though local residents have told reporters that the figure is much higher. Zhouqu County is in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province.
In the wake of the disaster survivors are taking the time to reflect on what they witnessed and experienced.
Large Death Toll Estimated
Mr. Li, a Zhouqu resident who personally witnessed the mudslide, told New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) that the death toll is far greater than the officially reported number.
“Out of 200 families in Yueyuan Village, only 11 people survived. In the nearby Sanyanyu Village, 20 out of 300 families survived. The 923 Tree Farm used to be a booming area with lots of people living there. Now it is filled with mud. People could not escape at all,” Mr. Li said.
Hong Kong’s Mingpao reported an eyewitness account from Liu Jiqin, a survivor from Yueyuan Village.
Liu said, “Fifty-three members of my family died. My father’s body was found without head and left arm. Yet he was still holding on to his eleven-year-old grandson, Huangxin, whose body was undamaged. It looked like the child was asleep.” Liu burst into tears.
Ms. Li, also a local resident, told NTDTV that the bodies that had been dug out were decayed, and that there were many bodies that could not be recovered.
Another Zhouqu resident, also called Mr. Li, said, “When the excavator dug for bodies, some bodies were cut in half, some were without head, arms or legs. Everywhere there is mud mixed with blood. I tremble just looking at it. Our tears are all dried up. We no longer have any more tears.”
Recalling the night of Aug. 7, Mr. Li said, “It rained heavily for five to six hours. Huge thunderclaps, like pounding hammers, sounded just above our heads. No one in our village could sleep. Everybody was scared.”
Mr. Li continued that the sound of the mudslide was scarier than the sound of an earthquake, and that the colliding rocks created sparks as bright as lightning.
Mr. Sun, also a Zhouqu resident, told The Epoch Times that he thought the damage of the mudslide to be far worse than that caused by the earthquake.
“In the earthquake debris, there are openings where people can breathe. But a mudslide leaves no room to escape,” he said.
“There were bodies without head or arms, bodies of young children, and bodies of an entire family clinging to one another. The scene is tragic beyond belief. Some people were swept away and their bodies will never be found. Some people were swept away together with their houses and they cannot possibly be found at all,” Mr. Sun said.
Ten Seconds to Safety
Ms. Zhang, a Zhouqu resident who participated in the rescue work, told The Epoch Times how one of her sister’s family had a close brush with death. The family lived in the second story of a six-story building. When the mudslide came, they all ran upstairs. They did not take anything with them, and the kids were without shoes. They had barely reached the third floor, when the second floor was already buried in mud; it took at most 10 seconds. If they had been a little slower, everyone would have been buried in the mud, which filled the entire second story, all the way to the ceiling.
Many of Ms. Zhang’s other relatives were not so lucky. She said more than 20 relatives, including 18 members of her two sisters’ families, had died, and only six bodies have been recovered.
Ms. Zhang was sobbing as she spoke to The Epoch Times on the phone. She said she was holding her niece in her arms.
“She is my sister’s daughter. My sister, her husband, son, and grandson—all four of them—died. I think about them when I hold my niece. She told me not to cry, but that saddened me even more,” Ms. Zhang said.
She also said that she felt sorry about her relatives because she had been so busy with rescue work that she could not take care of them.
Another survivor, Ms. Yang, whose mother and grandfather lived in the heavily hit area of Chengquan Township, said that there is no way to identify the bodies after more than a week has passed. She said she has lost her mother, grandfather, grandmother, and uncle, but there was hardly any rescue crews in her area. She had to dig out the bodies with the help of her friends. She also said she has not received any financial help, such as survivor’s benefits, from the Chinese authorities.
“There are many families that did not survive. Families with over ten people all died together. Many bodies have not been dug out,” Ms. Yang said.
A high school graduate from Zhouqu who didn’t give his name, told The Epoch Times on the phone: “It is horrible. The entire Yueyuan village is gone. My high school classmates and teacher all lived there. I will never see them again.”
He said that there is only one high school in Zhouqu County, and everyone knows each other. The mudslide killed more than 10 students.
“Some of the students just finished their college entrance exam. One of my classmates scored very high in the exam. But they will never receive their college acceptance letter,” he said sadly.
Deforestation
According to Zhouqu County Annals, until the 1950s, the entire area was covered by forests. But during the 1958 “Great Leap Forward,” large-scale deforestation began and tree coverage dropped from 67 percent; it had reached only 20 percent by the mid 1990s. Chen Jinghe, a lumberjack who once worked for the Zhouqu Forestry Team, told Time Weekly, “Back then, whoever cut down the most number of trees was praised. We were in a mad tree cutting race.”
Time Weekly said the Zhouqu County forests had decreased at a rate of 100,000 cubic meters (3,531,467 cubic feet) per year by 1998. Consequently, the ecosystem has been severely damaged by over-deforestation. On top of that, mining and road construction have led to more geological hazards, including landslides.
Dozens of hydroelectric projects in Zhouqu County have further compromised the ecological balance of the Bailongjiang River, the main river in Zhouqu County, and have turned many areas into barren hills prone to mudslides.
Recently, many areas in mainland China, including the earthquake stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, have experienced a similar sequence of heavy rains followed by mudslides.
A Southern Weekly report stated that according to 2009 data, two hundred thousand locations in China have been identified as hidden geological hazard areas, with 16,000 locations facing severe geological threat. From that the Southern Weekly concluded that it is just a matter of time before the next Zhouqu disaster occurs.
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