Nearly seventeen months after a powerful earthquake leveled the Yao'an County in southwest China's Yunnan Province, Gao Xuefu still quiver at his new welfare house, not at all for fear of the long-gone aftershocks. What concern him are the widening cracks creeping everywhere, from floor to ceiling.

A man clears the crack on the floor at his house in Yao'an, Yunnan Province, Dec 9, 2010. [Xinhua]

Local farmers build kitchens and washing rooms near their welfare houses built after an earthquake in Yao'an, Yunnan Province, Dec 9, 2010. [Xinhua]