Dujiangyan, a city of 630,000 people in central China, ranks among the most visited tourist destinations in the country. Historians cite its Qingcheng Mountains as the birthplace of Taoism, and at the base of these densely forested peaks is the famous Dujiangyan Irrigation System, a 2,250-year-old network of distributaries that still provides water to farmers. Furthermore, the local panda reserve is home to 43 of the nation’s beloved giants.
More recently, however, Dujiangyan has drawn worldwide attention for the tragic scene that unfolded there on May 12: It was the city nearest the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked Sichuan province, killing more than 80,000 people and leaving at least 4.8 million homeless.
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