People visit the ruins of Xuankou Middle School on Thursday, a memorial site of the 2008 earthquake in Yingxiu township in Southwest China’s Sichuan province. Photo: VCG

Liao Zhi, 37, lost her legs in the disaster. Despite losing her limbs, she continued to pursue her passion in dance, becoming a dance teacher and even founding a rehabilitation center to help people with physical disabilities in Southwest China’s Chongqing municipality. Photo: Chen Chao/China News Service, VCG

Niu Yu, a quake survivor, walks with a prosthetic leg for the Pony brand runway show in Shanghai in October 2021. Photo: VCG

Zhao Zhengwu poses for a photo holding his dog named Mickey in Chongzhou, Southwest China’s Sichuan province, in 2018. Both of them survived the earthquake. Zhao now sells pet supplies online. Photo: VCG

Puen Yawen was studying at Wenchuan’s Weizhou Middle School when the earthquake struck. She is now an e-commerce business owner, selling Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture’s local specialty online. Photo: VCG

Tang Xuemei, a member of China’s Sitting Volleyball Women’s Team and a Paralympic gold medalist, takes part in a training session in Shanghai in July 2021. Tang lost part of her legs in the earthquake. Photo: VCG

Ma Yuanjiang (right) was trapped under the rubble for 178 hours before being rescued. He lost part of his left arm in the earthquake. Ma now works in a power plant in Yingxiu township. Photo: Liu Zhongjun/China News Service, VCG

After getting pulled from the rubble, Xue Xiao’s first words to a rescuer was: “Uncle, I want to drink an ice cold coke.” Xue’s story became viral and help land him a job working in the World of Coca-Cola Museum in Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan province. Photo: IC Photo

Quake survivor Zeng Yongmou stands in silent tribute to the victims on the road from Mianyang to Beichuan Qiang Autonomous county in Sichuan in 2018. Today, Zeng owns a tea shop in Mianyang. Photo: VCG