Chinese keen to advise on rebuild

An earthquake-hit Chinese region wants to host Christchurch rebuild leaders and show them how it recovered from the disaster.

Sichuan province in the southwest was struck by a magnitude-8 quake on May 12, 2008, killing 69,195 people.

Five million people were left homeless, but within three years, 3.6 million homes had been rebuilt.

Sichuan Governor Wei Hong told Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel, who is visiting China, that he wanted people from Christchurch to visit the province and learn from its rebuild model.

He was keen for Sichuan companies to establish ties with Christchurch firms.

‘‘The Government and companies in Sichuan are very keen to engage in cooperation in earthquake reconstruction in Christchurch,’’ he said.

He wanted to learn more about the reconstruction of Christchurch’s public facilities, including hospitals, schools and factories.

Sichuan’s new buildings had been built to stringent building codes, Hong said.

Dalziel told Hong she would be happy to talk to Chinese central government about how the two areas could collaborate more.

Sichuan-based Huachi Group visited Christchurch in April as part of a delegation to promote the province.

The company is building a housing complex in the Yingxiu valley, close to the 2008 quake epicentre.

The project, which was being built on the site of a former cement factory, has a giant Tibetan artefact at its centre and would house more than 4000 people in 1200 apartments.

Huashi project general engineer Youguang Yan said the 180,000 square metre complex would take less than one year to build.

About 1200 people were working on the site, he said.