The massive quake which claimed nearly 70,000 lives, including over 12,000 from Yingxiu town at the epicenter of the earthquake, out of a population of 18,000.

With help from Dongguan, an economic powerhouse in Guangdong province, the social and economic livelihoods of the people in Yingxiu have been restored. The reconstruction work is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.

Even as reconstruction efforts are still continuing in Sichuan province’s Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the May 12, 2008, earthquake, local residents' incomes have exceeded pre-disaster levels.

"Though various economic indicators haven't yet returned to levels before the 8-magnitude quake, statistics show that the incomes of Wenchuans residents have increased significantly," Zhu Yaozhong, the deputy director of the development and reform commission for South China's Guangdong province, said at a press briefing.

The average per capita disposable incomes of county's urban residents reached 12,780 yuan (US$1,870) in 2009, 35 percent higher than the 9,450 yuan recorded in 2007.

The incomes of its rural residents' have grown by about 20 percent from 2,790 yuan in 2007 to 3,335 yuan in 2009, said Zhu, who is also the deputy chief in charge of Wenchuan's reconstruction efforts, which was assigned to Guangdong by central government.

He attributed the rise in incomes to more job opportunities created during the rebuilding of the county’s infrastructure and the recovery of local industries.

The two industrial parks that are under construction are expected to create 20,000 vacancies the county’s local residents, home to some 100,000 people.