All Chinese houses built before 1979 and 90 percent of rural houses built after 1979 are not quake-proof in their design, said Sun Botao, head of the Engineering Mechanics Institute of China Earthquake Administration at Japan’s Revelation International Symposium, held on Nov 13. China has regulations that require houses to be designed according to anti-seismic guidelines, although it seems they have only been followed by urban developers because most rural houses, in particular those built by farmers instead of governments, don’t measure up, according to Cheng Shaoge, deputy chief engineer of the China Academy of Building Research. Read More
