Earthquake reveals fragility in revival-seeking China(2)

"Even for a family where two young men go out to work in big cities, it takes at least five years to earn enough money," he said.

Official statistics show that the average annual income for a rural resident in Ya'an added up to only 6,200 yuan in 2011.

Looking for better pay, many young laborers have migrated to economically booming cities, mostly Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, and the neighboring municipality of Chongqing.

The labor flow has left the population of Ya'an villages mainly composed of women, children and the elderly, all of whom are much more vulnerable and needy in the earthquake.

Many Chinese believe the huge damage to roads and houses and severe shortage of water and power supplies in the quake-affected region have to some extent reflected the insufficient and low-quality infrastructure of the country's vast western reaches as a whole compared with its booming east coast.

"The earthquake has shown the real situation in China's current development -- the great disparity between the country's east and the west," said Chinese blogger "Guanguxuan" on the country's popular microblogging service Sina Weibo.

"The earthquake has thrown the region into the media spotlight," he said. "Or else I would have not known how under-developed it is."

Xinhua reporter Yi Ling in Lushan said she has seen many elderly people wearing ragged and old-fashioned clothes and hats, which would only have been found in the country's eastern rural areas one or two decades ago.

"In some households, the only appliance they had is a small, outdated TV set," she added.

China is now seeking to realize the "Chinese dream," the zeitgeist phrase used to refer to national prosperity, revitalization of the nation and its people's happiness.

The poverty and fragility that the earthquake has revealed to still be pressing problems in China's rural areas show that the country needs to expend more efforts to reach this target.

"As long as we are prepared and united, we will be fully capable of dealing with all complex situations and overcoming every potential difficulty," according to a statement from the top leadership after the earthquake.

The statement, issued after a key conference presided over by Chinese President Xi Jinping, urged the country to struggle for the Chinese dream in an unremitting fashion.

Brendan Frentz, a Canadian volunteer who served in Ya'an after the quake, said he had never imagined collectivism in China could be this strong.

"In the context of the 'Chinese dream,' there will be earthquakes, and there will be terrible things that happen," the 22-year-old student from Edmonton told Xinhua.

"But every time the country bands together, those who have been victims of an awful disaster will be pulled through," he added.