REBUILDING
Despite a severe shortage of resources and only 10 percent of the world average GDP per capita, China was determined to carry out the post-quake rebuilding without the help of other nations.
Only five hours after the quake, Feng Lindi, a steel worker, returned to his workshop.
"Nowadays you might question my motives, but in those days people had faith," said Feng.
"We heard of Western media reports saying Tangshan had vanished from the surface of the earth, and we were determined to show the world we had not."
On August 25, four weeks after the quake, steel bars rolled out from the furnace at Feng's workshop.
"We swarmed to the platform at the foot of the furnace, laughed, cried and shouted 'Long live Chairman Mao'," he said.
"It's a mixed feeling you won't understand."
Slowly but surely, homes, factories and public facilities were rebuilt. The central government allocated 500,000 tonnes of steel, 500,000 cubic meters of lumber, 2.5 million tonnes of cement, and more than four billion yuan to facilitate the post-quake rebuilding.
"At least 120,000 construction workers were hired from neighboring cities in Hebei to help with the civil construction, as many local workers had died in the quake," said Chang Qing, a 82-year-old photographer who has recorded Tangshan's reconstruction for four decades.
Altogether 650,000 homes were destroyed in the quake and not a single building remained standing.
"Tents were set up on the ruins and there was no empty ground in the city for new homes to be built," said Chang.
"Reconstruction had to start in the suburbs, and sprawl to the city center after residents had moved into new settlements in the outer areas."
For eight years, Chang's family lived in a small prefabricated house. In the hardest days, they lived on food relief and rain water from a muddy pond. For many months there were no fresh vegetables, and pickles were their only dish.
"There were 23 people from five families in the neighborhood, mostly women and orphans. I was one of only three healthy men able to do the tough jobs such as carrying fuel or cutting firewood," said Chang. "Together we helped ourselves in order to survive."
Two years after the quake, China started its reform and opening up.
"Reform accelerated China's development and spurred industrial growth in Tangshan, a city famous for its resources and chemical industries," said Professor Gao Minjie from the Tangshan Party School.
Businesses in Tangshan kept expanding in the post-quake era, spurred on by a growing demand for coal, steel and other resources.
The state-owned Kailuan Mining Group began sending its workers on training tours to Japan, Europe and America in the early 1980s.
A Tangshan-based overseas engineering company won its first international contract in 1985.
The first high-rise building, the Tangshan Hotel, was built in 1983, but was soon overtaken by the countless skyscrapers that make Tangshan the modern city it is today.
"Every new building is a monument," said Chang, who still records the city's changes with his camera.
"It's a relief I can do something for the sake of those who died in the quake -- the new city was built on top of them."
