Dujiangyan

This past weekend we took a day trip to Dujiangyan.  We visited some very cool areas while we were there.


The first was a high school that had been completely destroyed during an earthquake in May of 2008.  The high school had become a tourist attraction since the earthquake… very Chinese…

A whole little tourist town has been developed around the high school.  You can buy all sorts of little trinkets around the area…. definitely a tourist trap.

The site was very interesting to see, however.

Check out some pictures…

This place got absolutely owned by the earthquake.  The dorms and classroom buildings were completely destroyed.  The only building that remained the most intact was the bathroom and shower building.  It was leaning on its backside quite a bit; however, it was not in as bad of shape as the other buildings.

Just over 50 people died in this campus and thousands died within the city.  The reason that not as many people died at this school was because the earthquake happened at 2:25 PM.  At 2:30 the students have class.  I'm guessing the most of the students were in route to their classrooms when the earthquake struck.  Any kids that were in the classrooms or their dorms were sure to have died or suffered some serious injuries.

It was quite a site to see.  There were a decent amount of people at the school walking around and taking pictures.  A destroyed middle school where many people lost their lives had been turned into a tourist attraction, where the government and shop owners can now make money… Pretty interesting.  Reminds of the controversy surrounding the museum and gift shop at the 9-11 memorial that has been in the news recently.

The next site that we visited was a vast system of dams and dykes that had been created within Dujiangyan.  Apparently Dujiangyan is a city that had one of the first dams in the world, built thousands of years ago.  Today, this river splits into a number of smaller rivers.  A lot of water comes pouring down the mountains in the area.

They had a very cool old town and walking trail in the area.

You can see the areas where the river splits into another river.  This happens numerous times throughout the city.  Despite how often the river is split, the currents of the various rivers can be very strong.  Definitely don't want to get caught in one of the rivers…

Hope you enjoyed!  Another post will be coming soon…

Jono