Beijing, January 19:

Work on building a new town called “Eternal Prosperity” will begin next month to replace one of the cities destroyed in last year’s Sichuan earthquake, state media reported today.

Billions of dollars will be spent on the new seat of Beichuan county that will be built 23 km from the old town and well away from geological fault lines, Xinhua news agency said, citing one of the planners.

Beichuan was one of the worst-hit towns in the May 12 quake because it lay at the juncture of two fault lines. Roughly half of Beichuan’s 26,000 residents died during the May 12 quake, which left more than 87,000 people dead or missing across a vast area of southwest China.

The new county seat will be called Yongchang (eternal prosperity).