Many of the inhabitants whose houses have been destroyed have chosen to stay with their homes. They do not have the luxury of the space that exists in the flatlands of the plain. There is nowhere to construct a shelter but on top of the ruins of the house that has been destroyed. You have to flatten the rubble as best you can, then spread something on to whatever surface you have managed to clear, and stretch your shelter over the top of that.

For those who line the main road, the result is not comforting. Huge trucks constantly thunder up and down the road bringing supplies and removing rubble. A flood of other traffic pushes for space along with troops of soldiers carrying picks, shovels and massive hammers. There is not much margin for error.

The locals seem determined to remain cheerful. When they see that I am a westerner, they shout, wave, and give thumbs-up signs, as if I was the one in need of support.

We stopped and spoke to a couple camping on the remains of a house with hardly a stone left standing. Mrs Guo Dezhen seemed to take an almost perverse pride in showing us the totality of the destruction. Animated and loquacious, she recounted the story of how she and her husband had hidden under their little table at the start of the earthquake, then fled as their house collapsed around them. She showed us the table – almost the only stick of whole furniture they had left.

Mrs Guo and the table that saved her life.

They had lost their entire herbal medicine business – three hundred thousand yuan ($40,000) including their stock. Mr and Mrs Guo vowed that they would rebuild their home and their business. Their employee had not been so fortunate. He had lost his life.

It seemed impossible that things could get worse, but as we climbed through Yinghua they did. At the top of the village there is what used to be some kind of a mineral processing plant. By that point there is next to nothing left standing. The Plant had provided some apartment blocks for its employees, and various offices and small businesses occupied the ground floor.

One block ran along the slope. Half of it had sheared away and collapsed. The other block ran down the hill. The whole thing had listed crazily as the land slipped away underneath it, and it too had collapsed. The loss of life must have been colossal.