Strange things were happening in the countryside in northeast Hebei Province.For three days the water in the village wells rose and fell,rose and fell.Farmers' wives noticed
　　that the well walls had deep cracks in them.A smelly gas came out of the
　　cracks.In the farmyards,the chickens and even the pigs were too nervous to
　　eat.Mice ran out of the fields looking for places to hide.Fish jumped out of
　　bowls and ponds.At about 3:011 am on July 28.1976,people saw bright lights
　　in the sky.The sound of planes could be heard outside Tangshan even when no
　　planes were in the sky.In the city,the water pipes in some buildings cracked
　　and burst.But the one million people of the city,who thought little of these
events,went to bed as usual that night.
　　At 3:42 am everything began to shake.It seemed that the world was at an end!Eleven kilometers
　　directly below the city the greatest earthquake of the 20th century began.It
　　was heard in Beijing,which is one hundred kilometers away.One-third of the
　　nation felt it.A huge crack that was eight kilometers long and thirty meters
　　wide cut across houses,roads and canals.Steam burst from holes in the ground.
　　Hard hills of rock became rivers of dirt.In fifteen terrible seconds a large
　　city lay in ruins.Two-thirds of the people died or were injured during the
　　earthquake.Thousands of families were killed and many children were left
　　without parents.The number of people who were killed or injured reached more
than 400.000.
　　But how could the
　　survivors believe it was natural?Everywhere they looked nearly everything was
　　destroyed.All of the city's hospitals,75% of its factories and buildings and
　　90% of its homes were gone.Bricks covered the ground like red autumn leaves.
　　No wind,however,could blow them away.Two dams fell and most of the bridges
　　also fell or were not safe for traveling.The railway tracks were now useless
　　pieces of steel.Tens of thousands of cows would never give milk again.Half a
　　million pigs and millions of chickens had died.Sand now filled the wells
　　instead of water.People were shocked.Then,later that afternoon,another big
　　quake shook Tangshan.Some of the rescue workers and doctors were trapped under
　　the ruins.More buildings fell down.Water,food,and electricity were hard to
get.People began to wonder how long the disaster would last.
　　All hope was not
　　lost.The army sent 150.000 soldiers to Tangshan to help the rescue workers.
　　Hundreds of thousands of people were helped.The army organized teams to dig
　　out those who were trapped and to bury the dead.To the north of the city,most
　　of the 10.000 miners were rescued from the coalmines.Workers built shelters
　　for survivors whose homes had been destroyed.Fresh water was taken to the cityby train,truck and plane.Slowly,the city began to breathe again.