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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
Chen Qichun with her husband Zhang Lin, who badly injured his right arm when he was crushed by a steel bar. After the disaster, Lin returned to the school to comfort parents who had lost their children.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
A pile of rubble now lies where the school once stood. The quake measured 8.0 on the Richter scale.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
After the school collapsed, Huang Yue (center) was buried under rubble, convinced she would die. Here, she poses with her classmate Yang Jun (left) and her parents in a local Chendu hospital.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
Guo Jian rushed to the scene minutes after the earthquake and helped pull eight people to safety from the remains of the school.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
Music teacher He Anlin stayed at the school to rescue students after the earthquake. At the same time, he was worrying about his wife who was teaching at a nearby primary school.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
In what turned out to be a lifesaving decision, teacher Liu Tingting stood in the second floor stairwell as the earthquake shook.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOEL POON
Even days after the earthquake hit, parents and local residents continued to search for students at the site.
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY NATALIE BEHRING
The earthquake woke Zhang Xiang (left) from an afternoon nap. After hearing that his school collapsed in the disaster, she and her husband raced frantically to find her son, Peng Zhiyou (right). Today, they are happy—and lucky—to be together.
What a great story!