Medicine bottles sit in rows in a tent that serves as both a small pharmacy run by Dr Song Xiaobin and his wife, Wang Qijuan, in Yushu, and as their bedroom. It's been an unusual year, and the couple are counting their blessings.
'We know many people died in the earthquake, and we probably shouldn't say this,' Wang, 30, said late on Wednesday night. 'But we really feel very fortunate this night that we're alive. We almost didn't make it.'
Song, 28, his eyes glued to an online game he was playing, nodded slightly. 'This computer screen was smashed in the quake, too, and it's still working today,' he said.
Song and Wang grew up together in rural Xining, the capital of the western province, and once even shared a table in primary school. After graduation, Song passed his civil service examination and was sent to a hospital in Yushu. Life has not been easy for the two in the high-altitude town, but they slowly built a home and began raising a daughter.
Then the quake hit. Song still remembers a strange moment around midnight before April 14 last year. He was playing online games - the couple's favourite pastime after a day of stressful work - when he heard bottles pop and smelled medicine leaking. 'I had no idea what was happening back then,' Song said. 'Now I realise it was probably due to the change in air pressure before the quake.'
He found it hard to fall asleep that night. He finally nodded off but was awakened by a violent shake around 5.30am. Wang said she heard dogs barking in the neighbourhood and worried it was an earthquake. Song looked up at the ceiling, saw that it was intact, and fell right back to sleep.