The 1996 Gulang earthquake

On June 1, 1996, an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred in Gulang County. Strong earthquakes were felt in all towns and villages in the county. The county town and Gufeng, Heisongyi, Gulang, and Shibali Seven towns including Bao, Huangyangchuan, Dingning, and Sishui felt the earthquake strongly and were severely affected, causing landslides, house collapses, foundation subsidence, injuries to people, and livestock deaths and injuries. After the major earthquake, more than 60 aftershocks occurred, with the largest aftershock measuring 3.0 on the Richter scale.

Time of earthquake

20:49, June 1, 1996

Epicenter location

Gulang County, Gansu Province, China< /p>

Magnitude

5.4 magnitude. According to investigation and verification, this earthquake affected 75 villages, 669 groups, 32,427 households, and 146,030 people in 7 towns and towns. Among them, 21 villages, 167 groups, 2,806 households, and 11,843 people were severely hit; 8,460 households were severely hit, with 35,502 people; and 21,161 households were slightly hit, with 98,685 people. Zhangjiahe, Xuanma River, Xizhuang, Miaotaizi, Shuigou, Ximiaoergou, Shizuier, and Heisongyi Village in Heisongyi Township; Xishanbao, Liutiao River, Binggoudun, and Hutangwa in Gufeng Township 18 villages including , Jiucaichong, Wangfugou, Gufeng Village, Xiafeng and Fengquan Village in Gulang Town, Shibalibao Village in Shibalibao Township and three neighborhood committees in the county were particularly severely affected. The office buildings of three township governments and 21 village committees including Gufeng Township, Gulang Town, and Heisongyi Township were also seriously damaged. There were 56 landslides and 5 ground cracks in the county; 8,418 houses with an area of ??101,016 square meters collapsed, resulting in 59,900 dangerous houses with an area of ??718,810 square meters; 5,670 sheds with an area of ??34,020 square meters and a wall of 14,030 meters collapsed; 6,000 kilograms of food were lost and furniture was destroyed. 268 pieces, 12 household appliances (pieces), 3 machines (pieces), 1810 farm tools, 500 meters of agricultural power lines, 9.2 kilometers of roads, 8 bridges were damaged, 15 large livestock were killed or injured, pigs 560 sheep were killed; 4 people were seriously injured and 15 people were slightly injured. Only in the Jiucaichong Group of Jiucaichong Village, Gufeng Township, 487 of the original 659 houses collapsed and 162 cracked, becoming dangerous houses. Only 10 houses were lightly damaged; 87 of the 93 sheds collapsed, damaging 1,125 meters of courtyard walls. There were 16 landslides, 5 ground cracks, 112 water cellars, and 5 kilometers of village roads destroyed. The direct economic loss was 39.476 million yuan.

121 departments, units and some schools, health centers (institutions), industrial and mining enterprises, etc. in the county were also seriously affected by the disaster. 32 buildings had cracks and the area of ??dangerous buildings was 28,800 square meters. The urban public welfare facilities were seriously damaged, and the direct economic impact was The loss amounted to 33.41 million yuan.

Water conservancy facilities were damaged. More than 30 square meters of masonry collapsed at the exit of the spillway of Liutiao River Reservoir located in Gufeng Township; cracks in the spillway and arch bridge of Caojiahu Reservoir reached 2 centimeters; the water conveyance tunnel and working bridge of Shibalibao Reservoir subsided, and the spillway gate chamber cracked. The bridge and the lock chamber were misaligned by 5 centimeters; the slope protection stone on the right dam abutment collapsed by 10 square meters, and the crack in the straight wall was 0.5 centimeters; the 35-kilometer-long west bank provides drinking water for 3,250 people and more than 7,000 large and small livestock in 15 groups in 3 villages. The Feng human and livestock drinking water canal was broken; the 25-kilometer-long Gufeng main canal was seriously damaged; the urban section of the main main canal of the Gurang River and the head of the Gulang canal were damaged, resulting in the failure of normal summer irrigation; 650 water cellars and 1 waterlogging pond were damaged. , people had difficulty drinking water, causing direct economic losses of 5.38 million yuan.

The school buildings were seriously damaged and teaching activities were affected. 63 schools in the county were affected by disasters, 24 houses collapsed, resulting in 1,119 dangerous buildings, 18,904 square meters, and 950 meters of collapsed walls. Among them, 24 schools had severely damaged buildings with 366 rooms covering an area of ??5,754 square meters. Some classroom walls had cracks, roof ridges slid and shifted, beams and purlins were broken, roofs collapsed, and doors and windows were loose. Eight schools were forced to suspend classes, and students attended classes in the open air. More than 130 students living on campus in Huangyangchuan Township have moved out of their dormitories and have nowhere to stay. The direct economic loss was 5.05 million yuan.

The health center (institution) was damaged. There were cracks in the walls of 11 health centers (institutions) including county hospitals, maternal and child care stations, health schools, Gufeng, Heisongyi, and Gulang Town health centers and 21 village-level health stations (rooms), 27 collapsed houses, and 660 dangerous houses. , with an area of ??12,861 square meters, 20 meters of walls collapsed, and some equipment and medicines were damaged. The direct economic loss was 3.5 million yuan.

31 warehouses in 9 grain management offices (stations) in the grain system were damaged to varying degrees, seriously affecting warehousing. The direct economic loss was 1.06 million yuan.

Eight industrial and mining enterprises and one commercial enterprise were forced to suspend production or partially suspend production. There were 2,160 square meters of cracks in the laboratory office building, power distribution room, dryer room, workshop studio, and staff dormitory of Heisongyi Cement Plant. 9 pieces of equipment were scrapped due to the earthquake, and production was forced to stop for 19 hours. There were many cracks in the office building, dormitory building, and workshops of Gulang Cement Factory, the boilers were damaged, and some workshops were shut down. There are serious cracks in two lime kilns and three workshops in the chemical plant. Fifty-five workshops and three warehouses of the pharmaceutical factory were severely damaged, and production was suspended for 12 hours. A 204-square-meter workshop of the printing company collapsed, and a 726-square-meter workshop and office building were damaged by cracks. The food factory building suffered serious cracks, and the soy sauce vermicelli workshop was forced to suspend production. Gulang Town Brick and Tile Factory suspended production due to kiln collapse. The hardware company's first sales department had herringbone beams and brick columns broken and was forced to close down. The direct economic loss was 6.74 million yuan.

The office buildings of party and government agencies and dormitories for employees’ families were seriously damaged. The county committee, National People's Congress office building, government family building, Science and Technology Commission, Science and Technology Association office building, Agricultural Bank of China business building, Party school classrooms, procuratorate office buildings and other buildings cannot operate normally due to the disaster. The direct economic loss was 10.6 million yuan.

Public welfare facilities in the county were damaged. One water tower and two wells were destroyed, 2,500 meters of water supply pipelines were broken, and the water supply was cut off for 19 hours. Power supply facilities were damaged, power outages were caused, and communication lines were temporarily interrupted. The direct economic loss was 1.08 million yuan.

The earthquake caused huge losses to the production and life of the people in the county. Some people in urban and rural areas were homeless and sleeping outdoors on the streets. According to detailed accounting, the direct economic losses caused by the earthquake amounted to 72.886 million yuan.

Shortly after the big earthquake, there were continuous heavy rains and freezing weather. Fifty-seven village groups in seven townships, including Heisongyi, Shibalibao, Jingquan, Huangyangchuan, Huanghuatan, Qiancheng and Hengliang, were hit by floods.

The affected crop area is 36,930 acres. Among them, 15,244 acres were severely affected, 4,690 acres had no seedlings, 2,306 acres of farmland, 57 kilometers of rural roads, and 26 drinking wells for humans and animals were washed away. 80 livestock, large and small, were killed or injured. Caused direct economic loss of 1.6 million yuan.

The temperature in the southern mountainous area dropped sharply by 8.3℃, causing 43 villages in the four townships of Gufeng, Heisongyi, Hengliang and Gancheng to suffer from snow and frost disasters. The affected area of ??crops was 102,175 acres. 37,300 acres, including 11,702 acres of extinct seedlings. The direct economic loss was 2.0633 million yuan.

The continuous occurrence of natural disasters such as floods, snow and frost has put people in the disaster areas into more difficult predicaments and made earthquake relief work very difficult. Five minutes after the earthquake, the county immediately reported the relevant situation to the provinces and prefectures. At the same time, in accordance with the "Gulang County Major Earthquake Countermeasures Plan", County Party Committee Secretary Chai Erli and County Magistrate Xu Wenshan immediately held an emergency meeting of the earthquake relief headquarters, quickly deployed arrangements, and immediately organized a disaster investigation team and rescue team, led by leaders of the County Party Committee and County Government , walking over the mountain when the mountain road was narrow and impassable, and rushed to the severely affected Heisongyi and Gufeng Townships overnight. They commanded the rescue on site, organized the people to evacuate dangerous buildings, eliminated dangers, and treated the injured. In the early morning, 37 leading cadres from 18 departments including civil affairs, public security, health, and finance were mobilized to form a powerful earthquake relief working group. They rushed to the severely affected areas in 5 routes and worked with rural cadres to go village by village, group by house, and house by house. Conduct detailed disaster investigation and verification, express condolences to the affected people, and stabilize the mood of the people. Vice Governor Cui Zhenghua, the Provincial Earthquake Bureau, the Department of Civil Affairs, and the Deputy Secretary of the Prefectural Committee Yang Xingchang, Deputy Secretary of the Prefectural Committee Zeng Jiwei, and Deputy Commissioners Zhang Ming and Jiao Tiancheng also rushed to the scene in time to inspect the disaster situation and guide the work. Six county leaders who contacted the disaster-stricken towns also came to the scene to direct the disaster relief. The county also established an office of the Earthquake Relief Headquarters, with five groups responsible for handling the daily affairs of the county's earthquake relief, implementing major decisions and arrangements for earthquake relief, and carrying out disaster verification, material distribution, publicity reports, situation summary, Logistics services and other matters. The civil affairs, water conservancy, public security, education committee, health, rural telecommunications, post and telecommunications, earthquake, urban construction, publicity, food and other departments went all out to fight the earthquake and provide disaster relief. In addition to leaving one leader to handle normal affairs in the villages and villages department in key towns, the rest of the comrades All are involved in earthquake relief work. At the same time, the county also transferred personnel from departments, so that key villages in the disaster area had a comrade from the county-level department stationed in the village to carry out work. All departments and units have made the earthquake relief work a top priority and fully supported the earthquake relief work, requiring vehicles to come out and people to come in and out. Earthquake relief teams have also been established in various towns and villages in the disaster area, with 167 rural cadres dedicated to disaster relief work.

The Jiucaichong Group in Gufeng Township, which is the seventh-intensity abnormality point, established an earthquake relief leadership group composed of 12 people. There are four groups responsible for labor deployment, emergency road repair, eliminating dangers, receiving, managing, distributing materials, and liaison work. Although all the houses in the village basically collapsed, the disaster relief work was well organized and effective measures effectively prevented the occurrence of secondary disasters.

More than 500 dangerous houses were eliminated, more than 400 dangerous situations were eliminated, 100 houses were reinforced, and more than 1,200 earthquake-proof sheds were built. 1,400 kilograms of shed film, 1,040 pieces of wood, and 200,000 kilograms of sold-back grain were easily constructed. Shed allows students to resume classes. Seven medical staff treated the sick and wounded in the village and carried out comprehensive epidemic prevention. 15 kilometers of roads have been repaired, which greatly facilitates disaster relief work.

All parties are working closely together and making every effort to rescue and provide disaster relief. In view of the situation just after the earthquake, aftershocks continued, the temperature dropped sharply, and there were sudden heavy rains. The people were short of food and clothing, sleeping in the open, depressed and depressed. Emergency measures were taken. First, medical personnel were mobilized from counties and townships, and 8 medical teams were stationed in villages to treat injured people, carry out health publicity, distribute disinfection drugs, strengthen disease detection and water quality testing, and treat 180 sick and injured people (times), effectively effectively prevent the occurrence of epidemic diseases. The second is to give full play to the role of the county and rural rescue teams, working day and night, spreading sand and filling pits, widening roads, repairing 73 kilometers of 8 roads from counties and townships to the hardest-hit areas, opening 3 kilometers of new roads, and excavating 16,000 cubic meters of earth and stone. 11,000 man-days were invested. The masses took the initiative to give up young fields and widen roads, restoring traffic in the shortest time and ensuring the transportation and distribution of disaster relief materials. At the same time, 4,670 dangerous buildings were cleared and demolished, and 364 dangerous situations were eliminated. 5,890 houses were reinforced, 3,870 temporary earthquake-proof sheds were built, and 7 simple teaching sheds were built, temporarily solving the problem of open-air classes in 5 schools. The third is to allocate manpower from the public security department to strengthen public security in urban areas and disaster-stricken towns, and do a good job in evacuating and appeasing the masses. Some village groups in key disaster areas spontaneously established night patrol teams, taking turns to be on duty. No major chaos or chaos occurred during the earthquake. Security cases. The fourth is to organize departments such as electricity, post and telecommunications, urban construction, and transportation to find the cause, eliminate faults, and restore normal water supply, power supply, communications, and transportation as quickly as possible. At the same time, we have strengthened the monitoring of key facilities such as reservoirs, power supply, transportation, and communications, as well as key areas prone to landslides, landslides, and flooding, to prevent new disasters.

On the day after the earthquake, the county government, under very difficult financial conditions, squeezed out 500,000 yuan of funds from special funds and food relief funds, including 250,000 kilograms of grain and flour. 200 bags, 190 rolls of linoleum, 695 pieces of wood, 3 tons of shed film and other first-aid supplies were transported to the hardest-hit areas. Cadres and employees of many units actively sent warmth and love to the disaster-stricken areas, donated money and materials, and supported the people in the disaster-stricken areas to tide over the difficulties. Relevant provincial and local departments and other provinces and places also called to express condolences. The prefectural committee and administrative office organized the transportation of 60 square meters of wood, 2.5 tons of shed film, and 250 rolls of linoleum to the disaster area. Five comrades from the provincial assistance team heard about the disaster situation. , quickly came from Lanzhou to assist in the earthquake relief and donated 500 yuan. The four leaders of the county and party members and leading cadres took the lead in donating, giving great care and support to the people in the disaster area both materially and spiritually. There were 21 Unit, 451 people donated 10,565 yuan, 37 pieces of clothing, and 50 rolls of linoleum. The county promptly sent these emergency supplies to the disaster area. When many people in the disaster area saw the wood, flour and other relief supplies, they burst into tears, thanked them repeatedly, and said from the bottom of their hearts: The Communist Party is better, socialism Well, the government is still reliable at critical moments. They spontaneously lined up to welcome the disaster relief team, delivered water to say hello, helped push vehicles, pulled people to carry them, and hauled supplies. The scene was very touching. Strengthen ideological, political and publicity work: First, organize publicity, broadcasting and other publicity departments to conduct on-the-spot interviews on the front lines of disaster relief, collect materials, organize manuscripts, and quickly transmit information to radio stations, newspapers and other news media to provide information. People's Daily, China Youth Daily, Gansu Daily, Gansu Economic News, Yangcheng Evening News, Xinmin Evening News, Lanzhou Evening News, Wuwei News, CCTV, provincial TV and radio stations, regional TV stations and other news units have successively reported on the disaster situation and earthquake relief situation in our county. At the same time, the county also recorded live events, shot feature films, posted more than 600 slogans and hung 28 banners at major urban and rural intersections and villages in the hardest-hit areas. The county conducted publicity in a comprehensive, objective and timely manner, and received support from other provinces and all walks of life. Widespread attention and deep concern.

The second is to combine the work of disaster investigation and disaster relief, widely publicize the concern and support of the party and the government for the people in the disaster area, publicize the typical deeds in the earthquake relief, publicize the selfless assistance from all walks of life to the Gulang people, publicize that when one party is in trouble, all parties support it. The new socialist trend has further stabilized the mood of the cadres and the masses and enhanced the confidence and courage of the cadres and the masses in earthquake relief. The people in the disaster area have been inspired and confident. They have fully carried forward the spirit of self-reliance and hard work and adopted various forms to carry out earthquake relief and self-rescue, which has begun to take shape. A situation where everyone is united to fight the disaster and save themselves, and go all out to restore production. Third, we took the opportunity of this earthquake to widely publicize and educate the masses not to be careless or panicked by printing and distributing promotional materials, broadcasting TV films, etc., so that the masses could understand basic earthquake knowledge and common sense of earthquake resistance and earthquake prevention, and further enhance their awareness of earthquake prevention and control. The county's cadres and masses have become more aware of earthquake resistance and have improved their quality in earthquake prevention.

To carry out the work of resettling the victims and rebuilding their homes, the first step is to further organize manpower. On the basis of the previous work, in accordance with the detailed, practical and accurate requirements, an in-depth and detailed disaster investigation and verification work was carried out village by house. . In order to accurately grasp the disaster situation, the county, in accordance with relevant regulations, has uniformly formulated and issued standards for extremely serious disasters, severe disasters, and light disasters. It has completed the disaster assessment and registration work for most village groups, and clarified and mastered the disaster-stricken households. The basic situation, degree of disaster and self-rescue ability have laid a good foundation and provided a reliable basis for rebuilding homes. Second, a material management and distribution system and fund management methods, special account storage, and special management have been established to ensure accurate and timely distribution of disaster relief materials. Third, while organizing the masses to reinforce and repair housing, in accordance with earthquake resistance requirements, we organized manpower to formulate detailed plans and design plans for infrastructure repair, reinforcement, and reconstruction of homes, and actively prepared supplies and materials. Fourth, the county party committee and the county government formulated and issued the "Opinions on Arrangements for Further Improving Earthquake Relief Work" and made detailed and thorough arrangements in terms of organizational leadership, publicity and education, material management, disaster investigation and verification, and home reconstruction.

As of the end of 1996, we had successively strived to release 1.95 million yuan of emergency funds and building funds, 2.4 million kilograms of relief grains, 84 units donated 67,000 yuan, supplied 1.4 million kilograms of improved seeds, and distributed 6.8 million yuan of chemical fertilizers. 21 damaged schools and water conservancy facilities damaged by the earthquake were repaired, rebuilt, and restored to use. 1,113 private houses were rebuilt and 10,247 were repaired. The production and life of the victims were properly resettled, and earthquake relief was achieved. victory. Aftershocks are likely to follow the earthquake, and the location of the aftershocks may not be very close to the earthquake source. Therefore, learning to self-rescue is one of the most important measures after an earthquake.

When an earthquake occurs, it is crucial to have a clear mind and a calm attitude. Only by being calm can it be possible to use the earthquake prevention knowledge you have learned in daily life and judge the size and distance of the earthquake. Recent earthquakes often start with an up-and-down bump, followed by a side-to-side sway. The teleshocks are less bumpy and vibrate, but mainly rocking from side to side. The sound is crisp and the vibration is small. Generally, there is no need to flee for small earthquakes and distant earthquakes. It can be seen that although humans cannot completely avoid and control earthquakes, as long as they can master self-rescue and mutual rescue skills, the disaster can be minimized. There are the following points:

1. It is very important to stay calm during an earthquake. Some people have observed that many innocent people were not injured or crushed to death due to the collapse of their houses, but they lost hope of survival due to mental breakdown and shouted and screamed indiscriminately. He "strangled" himself in extreme fear. This is because yelling will accelerate metabolism, increase oxygen consumption, reduce physical strength, and reduce tolerance; at the same time, yelling will definitely inhale a large amount of smoke and dust, which can easily cause suffocation and increase unnecessary casualties. The correct attitude is to always remain calm in any harsh environment, analyze the situation, find a way out, and wait for rescue.

2． Hemostasis, immobilization injuries, and crushing injuries are common injuries in earthquakes. For open wounds and external bleeding, you should first stop the bleeding and raise the affected limb while calling for help. For open fractures, on-site reduction should not be performed to prevent further tissue injury. Generally, the wound surface is covered with clean gauze and briefly fixed before operation. Fractures in different parts need to be fixed according to different requirements. They will be classified and graded according to different injuries and conditions, and sent to the hospital for further treatment.

3． When properly handling a wound crush injury, you should try to relieve the pressure as soon as possible. If you encounter a large area of ????trauma, you should keep the wound clean and wrap it with clean gauze. If you suspect tetanus or Aerobacillus infection, you should contact the hospital immediately. Prompt diagnosis and treatment.

For those with large-area trauma or severe trauma, sugar and saline can be taken orally to prevent shock.

4. Preventing fires Earthquakes often cause many "secondary disasters", fire is a common one. In a fire, you should leave the fire scene as soon as possible, take off your burning clothes and hats, cover yourself with wet clothes, lie down and roll around, or pour water directly to extinguish the fire. Do not use your hands to fight the flames, otherwise your hands will be burned. Wrap it with sterile gauze or clean cloth and send it to the hospital for further treatment.

5. At the same time, we must prevent tetanus and gas gangrene, bury corpses deeply as soon as possible, and pay attention to food and drinking water hygiene to prevent major epidemics after a major disaster.

On May 23, 1927, an 8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Gulang. The earthquake affected Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi and other areas, causing a large trench about 5 meters wide and 200 meters long to sink into the ground. The Shuixiakou Buddhist Temple collapsed, and all the stone monuments in the temple twisted to the northwest and fell. "Shengjing Times" recorded the cruel situation of earthquake damage in Wuwei County and surrounding areas: "There was a sudden earthquake, the valley collapsed, the sun was dark, and sixty-seven out of ten houses in the city collapsed,

On August 25, 1933, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake occurred in Diexi, Maowen County. It was an extremely hot day. Suddenly, the earth turned upside down with a deafening sound. The violent shaking lasted for a minute, and large cracks appeared everywhere on the ground, opening and closing. Yellow smoke shot out from it and shot straight into the sky. After the earthquake, Diexi City was destroyed. There was a Chenglong Temple in the east part of the city, with broken columns and fallen beams. It was the only remaining building in the city. There were no traces of any of the 278 houses in the city. It can be found. The landslides caused by the earthquake blocked three places in the Minjiang River and became three major "earthquake lakes". The Longchi on the other side of Diexi City and Longchi Mountain is filled with water all year round. It is one of the eight scenic spots in Diexi. The lake water after the earthquake. Dry. The top of the third weir is about 300 meters thick and 100 meters high. It is the strongest, largest and most water-holding weir of the three.

The three weirs stopped the flow of the Minjiang River for 43 days. The river flowed back for more than 20 kilometers. At 7 o'clock on October 9, 45 days after the earthquake, the dam broke and the flood peak reached Maowen County, 120 kilometers away, and reached Leshan County, 260 kilometers away from Diexi. According to a survey by the Guanxian Water Conservancy Research Association: More than 1,600 people died in the county, and more than 4,000 acres of cultivated land were destroyed. Chang Longqing, a geologist at the time, calculated the damage caused by the Diexi earthquake. All the mountains, rivers and swamps 30 miles around Diexi were destroyed, covering an area of ??hundreds of kilometers. In the hardest-hit area, more than 6,800 people died. The floods destroyed most of the villages and towns above Guanxian County, and more than 2,500 people died. The two large and small "Haizi" created by the earthquake have been preserved to this day, like sapphires embedded in the mountains, becoming tourist attractions. A great landscape.

After a heavy snowfall, this small county town surrounded by mountains on three sides at the foot of the Qilian Mountains was covered with a layer of white snow, almost connecting it with the snow-covered mountains

Gulang County is located at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor, bordering Jingtai to the east, Tianzhu to the south, Wuwei to the northwest, and Alxa Left Banner of Inner Mongolia to the northeast. It is the hub of the ancient Silk Road.

Provincial Highway 308 and Qianwu Railway cross from east to west. National Highway 312 is the national highway from Shanghai to Yining, Xinjiang. It is 46 kilometers long in the county and runs north to south; Provincial Highway 308 is called "Haiyuan" (Ningxia Haiyuan). ) Gulang Highway, connected with National Highway 312 at the Twin Towers, has a maximum length of 99.7 kilometers in the county.

There are only 398,000 people in Gulang County, including Han, Tibetan and Hui people. There are 9 ethnic groups including Tu, Manchu, Dongxiang, Maonan, Mongolian and Yao. This small county has buried the pain of earthquakes and wars in ancient times, but it has been gradually forgotten by people.

Lang is on the road to development.

A county facing relocation

The name Gulang comes from the Tibetan language, which means a place where yellow sheep roam. But I don’t know it in Gulang. I saw yellow sheep, but I saw several sculptures of deer in the roadside park. 1980s-style bungalow buildings can be seen everywhere in the county, and the walls are painted with a layer of rough cement. , using stones of different colors to inlay several stacked diamond patterns. The more modern place in the entire county is a newly built building near the highway in the west. In other places, you can even see large houses with civil structures.

This county town at the foot of the Qilian Mountains was destroyed in 1927. The intensity of the earthquake that occurred in the northwest of Gulang County reached 11. According to the county annals, “all the houses in the city were in ruins.” The death toll More than 4,000 people.

But this experience has gradually faded.

I approached a group of old people who were playing chess and basking in the sun. When I asked the oldest man with a long white beard about the 1927 earthquake, he seemed very confused, and the people around him were even more confused. Very understanding.

Of course, if those who witnessed it were alive, the youngest would be 85 years old. Follow the road pointed by the old people to the Gulang Cultural Center. They said that there is a museum recording the great earthquake, but unfortunately it is closed on weekends.

However, the impact of this earthquake was huge, and it still affects the development of Gulang to this day.

On August 31, 2011, the "Master Plan for the Wuwei Urban-rural Integrated Development Core Area of ??the Gansu Province Coordinated Urban-Rural Development Experimental Zone" was released. The plan proposed the construction of a spatial development structure of "one axis, two cities, and three clusters".

“One axis” refers to the central axis of the development of the core area with the Jinda Expressway, and its function is to form the spine and aorta of the core area’s spatial organization. Started in 2010, this highway has a total investment of 4.559 billion yuan and a total length of 158.64 kilometers. It runs through 22 towns and villages in Liangzhou District and Gulang County, and connects Wuwei Golden Sun New Energy High-tech Zone and Gulang County Tumen Industrial Park. an industrial park. The Gulang Industrial Concentration Zone, which focuses on specialty industries such as fine chemicals, building materials, food processing, and biopharmaceuticals, is located along this axis.

The "Twin Cities" include Liangzhou and Dajing Town to the east of Gulang County. "Liangzhou City" and "Dajing City" are connected by the Jinda Expressway, one in the west and one in the east. The "Plan" clearly states that Dajing City should be built in accordance with its future positioning as a county town, assume the functions of the central urban area of ??Gulang County, guide the county's economic and social construction focus to move northward, and develop into the southeastern gateway and link between Wuwei City and the "Lanbai Economic Circle" Important node towns will gradually assume the functions of sub-central towns in the core area of ??urban-rural integrated development.

As the economic center shifts to Dajing, Gulang County faces the fate of relocation.

Although the pace of opening up has arrived with great vigor, people's lives are still the same as before. Walking on the streets of the county town, a shoe store was playing "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style", while a nearby grocery store was playing "Love Business" like a competition, and a little further away came from a mobile phone operator store with a relatively high-end store decoration. Elegant foreign songs, stepping on the muddy water mixed with melted snow and soil, from popular to elegant, the distance is so close.

The Silent Past

On the high ground next to Longquan Park, a black monument carved in the shape of a long gun and bayonet stands. In front of it is a round large, overgrown cement hoop. The black tombstone is engraved with "Tomb of the Martyrs of the Ninth Army of the West Route Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". More than 2,200 soldiers from the Ninth Army of the Red Army's West Route Army are buried here. In 1936, they followed a team of more than 21,800 soldiers from the West Route Army into the Hexi Corridor from Gulang.

In Gulang, the West Route Army fought three battles with the pursuing Ma Bufang's army. The Ninth Army of the West Route Army suffered heavy losses. There is a saying that "in three battles in Gulang, the Ninth Army was halved." The Hexi Corridor is the area of ??influence of Ma Bufang, the warlord of "Qingma" who is entrenched in Xining. The West Route Army entered this area, broke into Qingma's territory, and was fiercely pursued and intercepted. In Gulang Gorge, the West Route Army and Qingma had their first head-to-head contest, but the Ninth Army, which was lured deep, suffered heavy losses, and Gulang's setback was just a prelude to the annihilation of the entire West Route Army in Hexi.

Master Zhong, 62 years old, is a cleaner and grave sweeper in this park. He said that the tomb of the Ninth Army Martyrs next to the park was called a "mass grave" at the time, and nine soldiers were buried there. Military officers, civilians and some Ma Jiajun soldiers. He carefully cleaned the fallen leaves on the steps and told me that people from the Lanzhou Military Region would come to pay homage to the martyrs' tombs tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, he actually knew about the Gulang earthquake. The elders once told him about the "earthquake in the 16th year of the Republic of China". He corrected my statement of "the earthquake in 1927". At that time, all the cave dwellings at the foot of the Gulang Gorge mountain collapsed, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. Nine years later, the Red Army and the Ma Jiajun fought a bloody battle here, and more than 2,400 people were buried here.

Master Zhong said that few people come here usually. His son and daughter-in-law go out to work, and he brings his grandchildren to play when he has nothing to do. While he was sweeping the floor, his 9-year-old granddaughter and 7-year-old grandson were playing nearby. When I asked this shy little boy where he went to school, he just lowered his head and fiddled with the leaves in his hands.

"Are you going to go to college in Lanzhou when you grow up?" I asked, but he was still too shy to answer.

"I will go to Beijing to attend university in the future." Grandpa answered for him. And he continued to sweep the fallen leaves, and there was a rustling sound in this empty and silent place.

On May 23, 1927, an 8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Gulang. The earthquake affected Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi and other places. Wuwei, Taerzhuang, Zhangyibao, Heisongyi, Huangyangchuan and other places were extremely damaged. Gulang County was severely damaged. According to the records of Gulang County: "The day was about to dawn. The first earthquake was weak, but after a while, the second one came again. There was a thunderbolt, the valleys and mountains roared, and dozens of feet of yellow dust lingered in the air, and the sky and the earth were fleeting. There was a strange color, the sun and the moon lacked light, the city walls and cottages were reduced to nothing, the mountains and rivers changed, the lanes and lanes were indistinguishable, the sound of pain could be heard for several miles away, in a county town known as three hundred households, seven or eight hundred men and women were crushed to death, and the houses in the whole city were Totally devastated. ... Statistics show that the number of people (dead) in urban and rural areas is more than 4,000, and the number of cattle, sheep, and horses (dead) is as high as 30,000. "There are many cracks in the fields in the Shuangta area, and a tunnel about 5 meters wide and 200 meters long has sunk into the ground. Big ditch. The Shuixiakou Buddhist Temple collapsed, and all the stone monuments in the temple twisted to the northwest and fell. "Shengjing Times" recorded the cruel situation of earthquake damage in Wuwei County and surrounding areas: "There was a sudden earthquake, the valley collapsed, the sun was dark, and sixty-seven out of ten houses in the city collapsed, and the prosperous areas were destroyed. It is a Qiu Ruins, thousands of years old monument. At the same time, the catastrophe shook the heaven and the earth, and thousands of wells were smokeless. There has never been such a cruel earthquake in the past. After detailed investigation, only one county in Wuwei was counted dead. It has a population of 35,495 (the original population was more than 80,000), 222,095 cattle, horses and sheep, 19,399 collapsed villages, and 4 houses. One hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and forty-two rooms, about 123,669 acres of farmland were destroyed, and other debris and other items were damaged. "At that time, most of the world's seismic stations, such as Shanghai, were damaged. More than a dozen stations including Xujiahui Station, Leningrad Station, Zurich Station, and Strasbourg Station all clearly recorded the earthquake.