The armed police carry relief materials in Yingxiu Town, Wenchuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 28, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

　　BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese nation was almost caught off-guard by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan Province earlier this month. As a result, an estimated 80,000 people perished in just a few minutes, and another 15 million lost their homes.

　　For a nation that has enjoyed three decades of economic boom in peace and stability -- man-made or natural disasters over the years sound too petty if compared -- the sudden tragedy was just too much for every one to take.

　　Still, in the abyss of grief, the country moves into reconstruction of the quake-hit regions. It is also high time for the nation to ponder why the loss could be so huge and what should be done to prepare for the possibility of another of this kind awaiting us in future?

　　In fact, natural disasters of this size have never been foreign for each generation of Chinese, whose national terrestrial territory covers 9.6 million square kilometers, let alone the fact that much of its land sits on a quake-prone belt.

　　Maybe, because the people have been longing for stability so much and too cautious against arousing disturbance after many years of chaos and disorder, there had been few such warnings before the quake that the worst of Mother Nature could occur -- people were just inadequately prepared.

　　The nation should start from now to realize that its future should not be built merely on GDP figures, but on its readiness toward off the worst odds of all natural and human factors.

　　Economists and other scholars have suggested disaster prevention and relief be integrated into the national economic and social development plan, and added into troop training and school courses so as to minimize the damage once disaster occurs.

　　The quake also helped enhance people's awareness of the risks of natural disasters, making officials and builders realize that projects should never be done cursorily; otherwise they will face legal responsibility even if they luckily escaped collapsed buildings they erected.

　　The central leadership has noticed the quality of structures falling in the quake, especially vulnerable school buildings that killed hundreds and thousands of children who were having classes at the time of the quake.

　　He Guoqiang, China's top anti-graft official and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, urged for an "upgraded quake-resistance standard" and "quality first" in rebuilding quake-damaged schools when he visited the victims.

　　Faced with strong protests from parents and public queries, the Education Ministry and local governments have promised to evaluate the construction quality of collapsed school buildings and "severely punish those responsible if problems were found."

　　LESSONS LEARNED

　　With tens of thousands of lives lost, the quake proved too dear a cost for the Chinese people. But if there is anything the Chinese could gain from it, it's the bountiful lessons both the government and the people have learned and the experiences they have had.

　　Fourteen minutes after the quake struck, the military sent out the first rescue team; within two hours Premier Wen Jiabao was on a plane to the epicenter. The relief headquarter was set up in the same evening in Dujiangyan, one of the worst-hit cities in Sichuan.

　　Meanwhile, Chinese media rolled out around-the-clock and nearly-live coverage of the disaster and the rescue work; the whole of society was mobilized.

　　Chen Guangbiao, a private business board chairman from the eastern Jiangsu Province, heading a team of 120 people and 60 excavators, rushed to the quake areas after an arduous 48-hour journey to help with the rescue work, side by side with the military.

　　Military helicopters, field hospitals, satellite images, air-lifting and air-dropping, scenes reminiscent of those seen only in Hollywood blockbusters, now appeared in China's TV news reporting, showing in a way the effectiveness of the country's national mobilization mechanism and also the economic and social prowess it has gathered in the past 30 years.

　　Meanwhile, the Chinese people also saw on TV that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen braved aftershocks to direct relief work and console victims in the quake areas; military troops scrambled to rescue lives in the debris at any cost.

　　"Saving lives is the top priority," that's what the government said and most importantly, what it did.

　　Many Chinese, including quake survivors, said they were "proud of the government" when speaking to foreign and domestic reporters.

　　Sharing the public sentiment, a young man surnamed Yuan from Ya'an, one of the worst-hit cities, said he was "moved by and proud of" his city government, which not only tried hard to rescuelocals, but managed to help other quake areas without any sign of red tape and local protectionism which used to be common.

　　After the quake, the Chinese government fulfilled with actions its pledge of "putting people first," something it had advocated so hard, and beefed up the governing ideology of openness and transparency. Officials saw this time the surging of a civil society, found the norm of their actions and the value of their very existence.

　　The general public also found the traditional values shine again, such as courage, resolution, reason and sympathy, which had once paled in people's mind when they were in pursuit of economic benefits.

　　China's spoiled younger generation, called the "post-1980s," grew up almost overnight after the quake, becoming a major force of the volunteers in the rescue and relief work.

　　A young man in Chengdu wrote to a magazine: "Before this incident, I had no confidence in humanity at all. Now, I found they are still there, and very strong in everybody's mind. The Chinese nation has a strong cohesive power."

　　LAW TESTIFIED BY HISTORY

　　President Hu may be a mild-speaking person in many people's eyes, but he was seen on TV yelling out to a group of relief soldiers that "No hardship will daunt the heroic Chinese people!" Premier Wen also wrote on a blackboard in a quake-hit school that "Trials and tribulations only serve to revitalize a great nation."

　　Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Shifang City, Sichuan Province, Sunday morning to oversee rescue operations. (Xinhua Photo)

　
　　Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao talks to students at a temporary classroom of Beichuan Middle School in Mianyang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 23, 2008. Wen Jiabao went to the temporary schoolhouse of Beichuan Middle School and the makeshift tent school established at Jiuzhou Stadium in Mianyang on Friday to visit teachers and students who survived the May 12 earthquake. (Xinhua Photo)

　　They are not merely words of encouragement, but also a law testified by history time and again.

　　Starting from the Opium War in 1840, China's modern history was virtually one of foreign invasions and famine. The Chinese, including rival warlords, consolidated their ground and drove invaders away in the end.

　　After New China was founded in 1949, the Chinese people, who had undergone a century of humiliation, cherished their independence and territorial integrity so much that they were always ready to safeguard them at any cost, including giving their lives.

　　Some 20 years later, havoc was again wreaked on their lives by a human disaster, the 10-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which brought their country onto the verge of a breakdown. But it was also the retrogress and chaos that prompted the Chinese to work harder in the next three decades to build their nation into the world's fourth largest economy.

　　The rise of a great nation has never been smooth. However, the gains and losses from every disaster it experienced and every mistake it made, will all be cauterized into the nation's historic memory and to nourish it into further growth.

　　The Sichuan earthquake, this time, given its great loss and vast social impact, will not only serve as a turning point on how the Chinese will build their infrastructure, but also on how they see themselves and how to run the country.