On July 28, 1976, strong earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit Tangshan area. From August, the “Two Institutes” dispatched survey and design personnel to the scene to join the overall planning, survey and design of new Tangshan. Mr. Zhao Shen, who was 78 then, also went to the Tangshan site for many times. Director Qian Xuezhong of the Shanghai Institute led a group of designers to the scene and joined the reconstruction of Tangshan. In the last 10 days of February 1977, the East China Institute received the engineering design task of repairing the Machine Repair Plant of Kailuan Coal Mine in the post-disaster reconstruction of Tangshan. On April 15, 1978, on the director meetings of architectural design institutions held by the Construction Committee, the East China Institute undertook the engineering design task of the one-million-square-meter residential area on Daqing Road, Tangshan. During the period of June 16-19, 1978, Hebei Construction Committee held a meeting on reconstruction of new Tangshan. 5 persons including Director Song Hua and Vice Chief Architect Fang Jianquan from the East China Institute attended the meeting, on which the East China Institute assumed construction tasks including 562,000m2 of residential buildings in downtown area and old residential areas, 200,000m2 of industrial buildings (39 units), 30,000m2 of public buildings and 150,000 m2 of warehouses.
Mr. Zhao Shen (second from the left) and expert team at the Tangshan earthquake area, 1976
6 institutes jointly took part in the reconstruction that was sponsored by the Ministry of Works and Buildings, namely, the Beijing Institute, the East China Institute, the Northeast China Institute, the Southwest China Institute, the Northwest China Institute and the South and Central China Institute. The East China Institute and the Beijing Institute were the first participants. At that time, it took 24 hours to go to Beijing by train. Most people took hard seats, but everyone was in high spirit.
Quoted from Mr. Wang Zhenxiong’s speech at the Symposium on the Past 60 Years
