For the May 12 anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, Lauren Hilgers took a tour near Ground Zero. Her report on  "quake tourism":

   Xiao Li is a dealer in disaster.  A skinny, twitchy, 25-year-old, he expertly negotiates the tragedies of the past and struggles of the present from his cell-phone in Chengdu, feverishly setting up tours to some of the worst-hit areas of the Sichuan earthquake.  To potential tourists, he rattles off the names of devastated towns like a barker at an auction—Beichuan, Hanwang, Yingxiu. “Yingxiu is the most popular, definitely,” he said to an interested customer on Saturday.  “But Hanwang is less crowded and you see mostly the same things.  It’s all rubble and empty buildings."

  “It’s all earthquake,” he said.

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    A year after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit -- displacing 5 million and taking lives of nearly 90,000 people -- the business of earthquake tourism is booming.  Touring the devastated areas may not be the safest nor most sensitive endeavor, but the demand is undeniable.  In late January alone, during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, Sichuan’s tourism bureau estimates that 7 million tourists visited earthquake sites, generating around  $263 million (or 1.87 billion yuan) in revenues.    

     On Xiao Li’s Saturday tour it wasn’t hard to see why so many tourists visit these sites.  The deserted streets of what used to be Hanwang town look like the end of the world.  Doors are flung open; buildings lean ominously.  Remnants of people’s past lives—backpacks, books, clothing and old stereos—are mixed into the rubble. Moss and trees are starting to reclaim the abandoned, broken-down buildings.  Imagine uncovering Pompeii a year after the volcano erupted.

     The original inhabitants of Hanwang have all been cleared out and reside in endless rows of temporary housing down the road.   Aside from a few soldiers and policemen -- there to block off the most dangerous parts of the town -- plus a handful of kiosks selling DVDs of earthquake footage, the population of Hanwang town is comprised entirely of Chinese tourists. 

     Peng Yueguan, a distinguished-looking retiree visiting from Beijing, tried his best to explain the impulse to visit the earthquake sites as tour buses began rolling into the deserted streets, depositing a large group of travelers wearing matching white hats.  "When the earthquake happened, it touched everyone in China,” he said.  “Everyone in China felt it and we want to come see for ourselves what happened here.” 

    Zao Fengqin, a manufacturer from Jiangxi Province, said he just barely missed experiencing the quake firsthand last year.   After finishing a business trip to Chengdu he flew out less than 24 hours before the earthquake struck.  “You might come here to see the power of nature,” he said.  “But I came here to remember that this is how life is—when it’s done it’s done.” 

    In Hanwang town, the tour stopped in front of a collapsed elementary school for a moment of silence.  A wreath of flowers stood in front of the pile of rubble where the school once sat.   Many of the students here didn’t make it out, Xiao Li explained matter-of-factly.  He took the same tone when we stopped to look at a group of temporary houses, the rows of blue roofs stretching out along the highway.  “Hot in the summer; cold in the winter,” he said. 

     Tourism is a valuable industry in Sichuan and local officials have done their best to promote the province’s most famous sites, including the Wolong Panda Reserve, the Leshan Buddha and Dujiangyan’s ancient irrigation system.  Chengdu is issuing 20 million tourist discount cards to help attract more visitors and on the anniversary of the earthquake, all these attractions will be open for free.  When it comes to the earthquake sites, however, most are trying to limit the number of visitors.  Tours are no longer allowed to visit Beichuan, although small groups in private cars are still allowed through.  Parts of Hanwang have been blocked off to prevent visitors from wandering in the rubble.  Some of these spots simply don’t have the roads or infrastructure to support the number of visitors arriving daily. 

     Some areas, on the other hand, have been welcoming tours.  In Qingchuan County in northern Sichuan, a quake-hit city called Donghekou has set up the area’s first earthquake park.  In Beichuan, where the entire town was buried in a landslide, a controversial USD $336 million (RMB 2.3 billion) museum is planned, complete with a cable car to transport tourists to the Tangjiashan earthquake lake, formed when rubble deposited by the catastrophe dammed up existing waterways. 

    While the majority of tourists on Saturday approached earthquake-hit areas respectfully, certain aspects of earthquake tourism seemed less than sensitive.  DVD vendors played earthquake videos on loop, and recorded screams occasionally echoed through the crowd.  The highway overpass looking down on temporary housing is also a popular spot for tourists to stop and look as displaced locals go about their business.   

    Despite such intrusions, Peng maintained that it's important for China to remember that earthquake-hit areas are still struggling.  Xiao Li’s tour group talked openly about the schools that collapsed during the earthquake and questioned whether the government would look into shoddy construction.  It is also important to remember, Peng said, that the Chinese people reacted heroically to the earthquake.  “The Chinese people came together to face this challenge,” he said. 

     The strength of the Chinese people in overcoming the earthquake is a continuing theme on the tours.  Billboards featuring photos of Chinese soldier proclaim “No hardship can overcome the heroes of the Chinese people.”  

    One of the famous heroes of the earthquake is housed in a privately-owned museum complex in Dayi County about an hour outside of Chengdu.  Strong-Willed Pig, a huge animal famous for surviving under rubble for 37 days before being rescued, lives in a back corner of the complex, sharing her space with the “Unyielding War Prisoners Hall” and the “Chinese Hero Statue Square.”   Her legs are a little unsteady after her experience, but she is looked after carefully.  A Wenzhou Earthquake Museum is scheduled to open on the earthquake anniversary, and Strong-Willed Pig is one of the attractions.    

    “This is a good pig,” commented Wang Fuqi, her keeper, who is extremely proud of his ward.  He crouched down to rub her belly and Strong Willed Pig rolled over happily.  “Many people are interested in her,” said Wang.  “They all know her name and want to come see her.”