In the tiny town of Pingtong, close to the epicentre of the catastrophic May 12 earthquake that killed at least 70,000 people in Sichuan province, Yang Shichen and his family have set up a vegetable stall outside the tent they are living in, preparing for a long wait.

“We’re going to be here for at least a couple of years,” he says with almost cheerful resignation. “We’ve got no house and nowhere to go.”