The Anti-Seismic Monument or Tangshan Earthquake Monument is located in the eastern part of the center square in

Tangshan City Tangshan () is a coastal, industrial prefecture-level city in the northeast of Hebei province. It is located in the eastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of the North China Plain. It is located in the central area of the Boha ...

, and the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Hall museum is on the western part of the square. The Monument Square measures 320 m long from east to west and 170 m wide from south to north, covering an area of 5.4 hectares. It is a monument to the city's dauntless spirit.

Description

The Anti-Seismic Monument is composed of main monument and a secondary monument. The main monument tells the heroic stories of earthquake relief. The secondary monument describes the history of the

Tangshan earthquake The 1976 Tangshan earthquake () was a 7.6 earthquake that hit the region around Tangshan, Hebei, China, at 3:42 a.m. on 28 July 1976. The maximum intensity of the earthquake was XI (''Extreme'') on the Mercalli scale. In minutes, 85 percen ...

in the form of ruins. The monument's pedestal is 3 m high and the body is 30 m high. The body is composed by four

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...

al pillars. The pillars symbolize the buildings which collapsed during the

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

and the new architecture which soars above the horizon. The top of the pillars resembles four huge hands reaching the sky and symbolizing that "Mankind Can Conquer Nature." The four sides of monument's body include eight engravings which symbolize the support Tangshan received from other parts of China. The monument body is

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

, and the surface is

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

. In the center is a frontispiece with the words "Tangshan Earthquake Monument," written by

Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang (; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as Genera ...

References

External links

{{Coord, 39, 36, 12, N, 116, 23, 30, E, type:landmark, display=title Monuments and memorials in China Buildings and structures in Tangshan