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SCMP Reporter

The mainland's biggest earthquakes in recent decades:

July 1976: At least 270,500 die when quake measuring 7.8 flattens northern city of Tangshan

April 1985: Earthquake measuring 6.3 kills 22 in Yunnan

August 1985: Xinjiang hit by quake that kills 67 and injures more than 100. Tremor measures 7.4

November 1988: Quake measuring 7.6 devastates remote areas in Yunnan, killing at least 730 and destroying about 400,000 homes

October 1989: Series of tremors in northern Shanxi and Hebei provinces kill 29 and leave 60,000 homeless

April 1990: Quake measuring 6.9 kills 126 people in Qinghai province

October 1995: Quake near Kunming in Yunnan kills 50 and injures more than 6,000. 6.5 tremor leaves 170,000 homeless

February 1996: Quake measuring 7.0 wrecks scenic mountain town of Lijiang in Yunnan, killing more than 300 and injuring 16,000

March 1996: 6.9 quake jolts Xinjiang, killing 26, injuring 128

May 1996: Quake measuring 6.4 rocks Inner Mongolia, killing 15 and injuring more than 200. Nearly 400 aftershocks follow

January 1997: 6.4 quake kills up to 50 and injures more than 40 in Xinjiang

April 1997: Xinjiang hit by strong quake measuring 6.6, killing nine and injuring 60

January 1998: At least 47 are killed and more than 2,000 injured when quake measuring 6.2 rocks Hebei

February 2003: At least 94 killed and more than 200 injured when 6.8 quake hits Jiashi county in Xinjiang

July 2006: 5.1 quake near Zhaotong in Yunnan kills at least 22

China's most devastating earthquake in recorded history hit northern Shaanxi province in 1556, killing an estimated 830,000



Litany of disasters