Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County
People's Republic of China · Asia
About Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County
Beichuan (Běichuān) is a county in Sichuan.
Beichuan was located very close to the epicenter of the Sichuan Earthquake on May 12, 2008. The county suffered extreme damage in the earthquake. The old Beichuan county seat was located in Qushan Town and it was also in the path of a massive landslide on September 24, which buried parts of the city under several stories worth of mud. After the earthquake, the government decided that Qushan would never be rebuilt, or even excavated, but would remain in its current state as a memorial. The county seat was moved to Yongchang Town.
While most of the old city is closed off, there are a couple of areas for viewing the damage and paying respect. A museum opened in the old Beichuan high school in 2011.
Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County travel guide
Getting there
There is a bus from Mianyang, leaving the bus station across from the train station. (As of December 2011 there were no buses leaving Mianyang's other major station; Pingzhen.) There may be other routes from other cities as well.
See
Beichuan Middle School was shown in newscasts around the country after it collapsed and killed all of the students in the lower two floors. The site is now sealed off and viewable by tourists. There is a view point a little bit up the road where it's possible to see the remains of old Beichuan.
1 5/12 Wenchuan Earthquake Memorial Museum (5·12), Renjiaping Village, Qushan Town, ☏ +86 816 4893333, [email protected]. May-Oct: 09:00-17:30, Nov-Apr: 09:00-17:00, closed on Mondays. Free. (updated May 2018)
Sleep
While of course you cannot sleep among the ruins of Qushan Town, accommodation can be found in the new county seat and other parts of the county.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.