The ruins of Wenchuan town, at the epicentre of the Sichuan earthquake, and Yingxiu , the most seriously damaged major town in the quake zone, are among four candidates to host a museum and memorial.
The proposals were contained in a report by the Sichuan provincial government to Beijing, said Li Yaoshen , deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage's museums department.
'On July 18, the Sichuan provincial government formally submitted its report on the construction of the Wenchuan earthquake museum,' he said. 'Experts, after a comprehensive quantitative assessment, have chosen Wenchuan, Yingxiu, the Oriental Turbine factory in Mianzhu and ... Chengdu as preserved sites, which will also be considered for the site where the earthquake museum will be built.'
Wenchuan officials have said they want the county seat to become not just a place to remember the 8,600 dead - almost half the town's population - but a place where people can learn to prevent similar disasters.
After collapsed and leaning homes, schools and office buildings are secured, officials intend to leave them as they are.
Experts from the provincial bureau of cultural heritage began a three-day study last month to choose a site for a memorial to mark the quake, which left about 88,000 people dead or missing.