Striving for livelihoods 3 years after Gansu mudslide

The forecourt of his restaurant in Zhouqu county of northwest China's Gansu province made an apt place for Xue Yuying to burn joss paper in memory of loved ones on Wednesday.

Three years on from a devastating mudslide hitting the county and claiming at least 1,472 lives, including his wife and two sons, Xue had some good news for them: his restaurant will reopen soon and he has decided to stay.

"I don't want to leave, though I know I may find better-paying jobs in other places," says the 55 year old, who lives in hard-hit Yueyuan Village.

Once a migrant worker doing odd jobs away from Yueyuan, Xue returned after the mudslide on Aug. 8, 2010, to find his house destroyed and his family broken. Later that year, Xue and his only surviving son opened the restaurant in the village with the help of a government loan.

Business has been good, as the post-disaster reconstruction brought construction workers, relief personnel and even some tourists to town, and Xue decided to refurbish and enlarge the store upon expectation of more customers.

In the alley where Xue's business is located, restaurants, fruit stores and groceries have opened up. An old lady quietly tends to a stand selling incense and joss paper for villagers to mourn the deceased upon the third anniversary of the disaster.

Life is slowly getting back on track in Yueyuan, where the landslide destroyed 90 percent of buildings and all farmlands, as villagers began to look for jobs after moving into new government-sponsored houses last year.

Most of the survivors refused to leave the land where their homes once were and had wished to open stores or work as drivers in the locale, says Liu Xiaolin, director of Yueyuan Village.

But starting a new life here has not been easy, as many farmers who lost their lands now lack money to start new business, Liu adds.

Li Haiyun, who lost his wife, son and all farmlands to the calamity, had worked on construction sites since 2010 but was made jobless by the completion of local reconstruction projects.

"I spent much of the government loan decorating my new house, and now I have to conserve the rest and tighten my belt," says the 48 year old.

Officials say the current plight is partially caused by a lack of farmlands. The local government, however, rejected plans to reclaim arable lands from local mountains due to environmental concerns.

Sitting in a steep river valley, Zhouqu once reclaimed 13,300 hectares of farmland by denuding nearby hills of forest, an act believed to be one factor leading to the mudslide, according to Wang Liaode, an official with the forestry bureau of Zhouqu.

"Now we must stick to reforestation, which has been an important measure to protect the local environment and prevent future occurrence of geological disasters," Wang says.

The local government adds that is has offered skill training for farmers who lost their lands in an effort to enroll them in the more profitable service sector.