Essential facilities are widely available in the community. Hospitals, policy advice for labor, employment, laws and regulations, psychological care, stores, the police station etc. are already in service. Volunteers from Henan and the northeastern provinces clean the grounds and help people move in under the guidance of the relative departments.

"Community doctors come to my house and give me a physical examination every day. They look after me well,” Wang Zhenying, an 80-year-old woman, told China Economic Weekly. Already suffering from diabetes, hypertension and myocardial obstruction, the earthquake resulted in a sprained foot and resultant complications. Now she is half-paralyzed and can only move in a wheel chair.

All the resettlement houses are light prefabs built of polystyrene lined panels. The external dimension of each unit is about 20 square meters. They are equipped with such facilities as lighting fixtures, electrical outlets, bottled gas stoves, storage cupboards etc, providing for the basic necessities.

Additionally, there are communal kitchens, toilets and water supply points, garbage collection stations, medical clinics, high schools, elementary schools, etc.