Construction began Wednesday on the largest housing project yet for survivors of the earthquake that leveled a county in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

The Denyingge residential project in Gyegu town, in the heart of Yushu County, covers 47 hectares, making it the largest home rebuilding project since the quake.

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake on April 14 destroyed most of the structures in Gyegu Town, the quake's epicenter, leaving almost 3,000 people dead or missing and more than 120,000 homeless.

All the wood-and-earth houses in the former Denyingge village collapsed in the quake, and new homes are being built on the debris.

The new homes will be two-story, Tibetan-style houses.

Kuang Yong, head of the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said they had adopted designs to withstand quakes and other natural disasters.

The rehousing project was marked by a brief foundation-laying ceremony Wednesday, but neither Kuang or the county government of Yushu gave a timetable as to when construction would be completed.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2010)