File photo taken July 28, 1976 shows rescuers working in the ruins after the devastating earthquake in Tangshan city of north China's Hebei Province.

Tangshan was said to have been erased from the face of the Earth after an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale flattened the centry-old industrial base in 1976. However, after three decades of rebuilding, it stands again as a vigorous city.

It has more than seven million people living in the 13,472 square-kilometer municipal area, including an urban population of three million.

In the past year, its gross domestic product grew by 15.1 percent to reach 202.7 billion yuan (25.3 billion U.S. dollars).