Editor's note: A deadly landslide hit Zhouqu county in Gansu province on Aug 7. The disaster killed 2,000 people.

Yang Jiangjie was lying on a hospital bed nursing a swollen right foot and dark red scratches all over his body when China Daily reporters met him.

Nineteen hours earlier, the 18-year-old had been at home when the worst landslide to hit China in six decades collapsed the two-story brick house, killing his parents and grandparents. Yang escaped by holding on a large rock.

Today, Yang is attempting to start a new life with other survivors and his 20-year-old brother, who was out of town when the mudslide struck.

"People get closer after the disaster," he told China Daily in a telephone interview. "It is one of the changes."

After a month in hospital, Yang made a full recovery. He is continuing his studies at high school in Yuzhong county. He and 280 student survivors receive subsidies of 450 yuan ($66) a month from the Gansu provincial government.

"The school offered us the new dormitory and new commodities for most of us lost everything in the mudslide," he said.

As the students' hometown was destroyed in the disaster, they rarely leave the school. Yang has left the school just twice in past five months, including once to bury his mother. The bodies of his father and grandparents have not been recovered, and Yang said he carved their names on his mother's tombstone.

"I live with five roommates. We rarely talk about the disaster but if someone is sick we take care of him, like taking care of our families," he said. "We only have each other."

The disaster also brought Yang and his older brother closer together. The teenager admitted he used to see his brother, a college student in the provincial capital, Lanzhou, only when he visited in the summer and winter holidays. Now they talked every week by phone.

"We only talk about daily life; about meals and studies," said Yang, "but we now know we're each other's most important person."

Yang is now looking past the first forthcoming Spring Festival, the first without his parents, to next year's national college entrance examination. Like many of his classmates, he studies from 6:30 am to 10 pm every day to improve his chances of getting a scholarship.

"I'm focused on my study and rarely think about other things," he added. "Life goes on."

Peng Yining

To read the original story, visit: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-08/16/content_11155655.htm