In addition to financial aid, working groups throughout the country, including design and planning experts, arrived at those areas, ready to help within one week after the paired assistance program was announced. This expertise brought advanced concepts of development and management to the affected areas.

"Such a large-scale reconstruction project would never have been completed without the 30 years of experience collected after the initiation of reform and opening and the all-out help from the entire nation," said Qin.

Construction for the future

When Liu Hongbao, head of the Guangdong Foshan aid group, first visited Shuimo Town in Wenchuan, it was the heavy pollution – not the destructive debris from the quake – that shocked him.