Earthquake response gains recognition online

A video showing teachers at a primary school safely evacuating their students after an earthquake in Tangshan Hebei province, has become hot on the Web.

The six-minute video was taken during the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Tangshan on May 28. In the video, teachers instruct the students to crouch beside their desks and protect their heads, while they open the front and back doors. When the shaking ends, students were evacuated from school in an orderly fashion.

Netizens have marveled at the speed everyone reacted to the earthquake and the calmness of the teachers and students.

Xu Yongshan, staff of the safety department of the Tangshan education bureau, was quoted as saying that almost all schools in Tangshan carry out an emergency exercise at the beginning of every semester.

A deadly earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 hit Tangshan on July 28, 1976. It destroyed the whole city and caused 242,000 deaths and 164,000 severe injuries.