The Wenchuan Earthquake Relic Park (ZHAO XI)

At 14:28 on May 12, 2008, the pendulum in the clock tower at the Department of Art at Aba Teachers College in Sichuan stopped forever when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck the province. Today, this clock tower has become an iconic site for remembering and paying respects to the victims of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

The Wenchuan Earthquake Relic Park was rebuilt from the remains of Aba Teachers College, with the clock tower at the center. Famous Chinese designer He Jingtang, an academician in the Chinese Academy of Engineering from South China University of Technology, and his colleagues were responsible for the park design. Three areas of the park--Clock Tower Plaza, Hope Plaza and Jing Si (literally "meditation") Garden--surround the remains of the clock tower, in order to mark the historic moment "14:28" of the Wenchuan earthquake.

Beijing Review reporters visited the Wenchuan Earthquake Relic Park on January 22, 2010. The first part to come into view was Hope Plaza, with the theme of rebuilding hope, located on one side of the clock tower across from the Minjiang River. At the center of the plaza is an ornamental flower garden surrounded by pavement engraved with designs. The ground of the plaza looks like a big clock, with the remains of the clock tower as the center and two black grooves in the ground as the hour and minute hands, frozen forever at 14:28. From Hope Plaza, one can view in the distance the city center of Weizhou Town, one of the cities in Wenchuan that is being resurrected after it was destroyed by the earthquake.

The theme of the memorial park is "Remembrance and Hope." As one park plaque says, "Remember not only the bitterness and pain of the disaster, but also the strong will and the brilliance of human nature exhibited by the people. Keep hope for honoring the deceased, comforting the survivors, and facing the future."

(Reporting from Wenchuan, Sichuan Province)