Betty Peng teaches at Nanshan Middle School in Mianyang, a city at the heart of the area devastated in the 2008 earthquake.

When the earthquake happened I was at home. 

In the beginning I didn’t realise it was an earthquake.  I thought the people above were doing some construction work.

But a few seconds later the house was shaking very terribly.  All the pictures on the wall and some furniture was shaking.

When I realised it was an earthquake, I was so shocked.  I couldn’t think of anything else.

Luckily at my school, no students died.  Just they were very shocked. 

But very soon our life went back to normal. Three weeks later the students went back to school.

Just a few months ago we all knew that Haiti also suffered and earthquake very very terrible.

Many many people died.

Before that people knew little about Haiti but after the earthquake all the people became concerned with the country and wish them come back to normal quickly and have the confidence to overcome all the difficulties.  

How did they do that?

BBC World service News for The World Today are exploring the impact of earthquakes through schools, including reports from a temporary school set up in Port au Prince by UNICEF.

Nanshan Middle School in Sichuan is linked to William Bradford Community College in Leicester.  

UK pupils visited Sichuan last summer and toured devastated town Beichuan.  See their photo story.  

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