Chinese workers have completed reconstruction of a middle school destroyed in the powerful earthquake that rocked many parts of Sichuan and other neighboring provinces in west China in May 2008.

A special ceremony was organized Tuesday to mark the completion on the rebuilding of Beichuan Middle School.

The reconstruction of the school is finished right before the new semester begins in September, said local authorities.

The school was one of the hardest hit areas in the magnitude-8.0 earthquake which has left about 87,000 people dead or missing.

More than 1,300 of the school's 2,900 students and teachers were killed or left missing in the quake rubble.

The students of the school who had survived the quake have been studying at temporary pre-fabricated schoolrooms in Mianyang City.

The new Beichuan Middle School in Beichuan County covers an area of 15 hectares, with a combined floor space of 720,000 square meters. It can accommodate 5,200 students, according to the local authorities.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2010)