While the entire world casts its eyes on Beijing these next 16 days, Dujiangyan is worth remembering. Flags hang from light poles across town, the white ones reading "Let's rebuild our homeland" and the red, "We'll wish the Beijing Olympics good luck."
Not far from the eastern entrance into town, a hospital, seemingly post-apocalyptic, stands barren. The windows and doors of the building are all gone. Every room has been gutted, and the floors are littered with rubble and trash, shoes without mates and even a stuffed teddy bear.
In front, blue and green tents offer temporary medical services. Sitting at an old wooden table, Ty Quiong Yin, a 72-year-old grandmother who lost her home in the disaster, lists her ailments for Dr. Wang Zhuang. Wang was working on the third floor when China began to shake.
"When the earthquake happened, the ground went up and down, up and down," he said, "and then from left to right. The stairway broke and collapsed. I tried to rescue patients out of here." He said the hospital was evacuated and no one was seriously hurt.
Not far away, Pu Yang Road, once a busy commercial street, has been reduced to just a patchwork of functioning life. Many tall buildings have been destroyed, some offering a hint of what formerly existed and others wiped out completely. Many of the businesses are operating out of tents on the sidewalk, giving much of the city the feel of an open-air flea market.
Just off the road, Gou Xue Yin's family has an apartment on the second floor, though they've been living in a blue tent. Yesterday they planned to watch the opening ceremony from the apartment and then immediately retreat for the night in the tent below.
"We're scared," said Gou. "What if the earthquake happens again?"
In the urban area of the city, there are 14 "resettlement" villages that house refugees, estimated at more than 50,000 for Dujiangyan alone. Xingfu Jiayuan - which roughly translates to "Happiness Homeland" - is the second largest, housing about 7,000 people in 2,200 units.
It's a makeshift community of prefabricated homes. Each consists of a single room, about 12-by-12 feet. The walls are thin, made of white plastic with blue trim. They were lined up in long rows on a vacant lot and constructed in only five days in May. Residents who lost their homes live here free of charge.
