Quake reconstruction picking up pace

"I know what the houses I am going to build will have," she said. "They will have very nice decorations."

　　Mourning in Beichuan

At the middle school in Beichuan county, which saw one of the highest casualties from the quake, more than 100,000 mourners from around the nation paid their respects to the dead.

Meters away from the collapsed school, where piles of joss sticks, paper money and other funereal offerings lay scattered, one father walked to the wire fence separating the crowds from the debris and placed a picture of his son with a written message.

"My dear son, one year has passed since you went to heaven how are you doing?"

In downtown Beichuan, 29-year-old Zhang Qiang knelt next to a collapsed apartment building. He said he was commemorating his young brother, who never got a chance to walk out of there.

"The May 12 quake is a thing of the past," he said as he laid flowers and lit candles and joss sticks at the site where his brother died.

"I'm back to tell my brother to enjoy his life in the other world.

"Tomorrow is a new start for all of us."

Editor:Liu Anqi