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DUJIANGYAN: Sichuan's Dujiangyan is home to the world's oldest operating water works, first built some 2,000 years ago.
The town also suffered one of the worst casualties in the May 12 earthquake when a school collapsed and some 900 teachers and children were buried.
The quake victims are now slowly adjusting to their new life at the relief camps.
Hygiene and disease prevention remain a high priority and volunteers are helping to spread the message to the public. But there are some who have chosen not to stay in these relief camps.
Foregoing support from the government, some farmers have rushed back to their farm plots in the quake zones.
Tan Yanshuang, an aid worker, said: "They want to have a new home quickly, to have their own house. So they have to go back and work very hard to rescue their crops, no matter how far they have to travel."
Sichuan is one of China's leading agricultural provinces. Officials said the quake has damaged more than 30,000 hectares of farmland – one third of which are wheat and rapeseed fields.
Mr Gao is one of the farmers who have chosen to return home because he felt he could not afford to stay idle at the relief camps. He is starting over again after his home, which he built after saving up for many years, was reduced to ruins.
The 67-year-old said he gets about 5,000 yuan or US$720 for an entire year's harvest of rapeseeds.
Two flimsy tents now house his family of five and they have to make do with only two mattresses and some very basic necessities.
However, the farmer is determined to depend on himself. "It doesn't matter where you go. You still need money," he said.
On top of rebuilding his home, Mr Gao also faces the daunting task of lifting his family out of poverty.
- CNA/so
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