The Sichuan province in mainland china has had a long history of seismic activity. On May 12th, 2008 the village of Wenchuan County located in Sichuan province was struck by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. According to the State Council Information Office, the causalities from this disaster were approximately 70,000, with approximately 10,000 confirmed to have been school children, whose deaths resulted from 7,000 collapsed classrooms and 18,000 more individuals, were reported missing (Teets, 330)
locals use Mandarin for communication & it is also their official language. However Chinese is also spoken there widely. Chengdu is located at the western edge of the Sichuan Basin and sits on the Chengdu Plain; the dominating terrain is plains. The prefecture ranges in latitude from 30° 05' to 31° 26' N, while its longitude ranges from 102° 54' to 104°