The year 1976 was a year that changed the course of modern Chinese history. At dawn on July 28, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale struck the city of Tangshan in Hebei Province. The Tangshan earthquake came suddenly without any prediction, resulting in a great tragedy. According to official statistical data published by the Chinese government, the Tangshan earthquake caused 242,000 deaths and 164,000 injuries.
Most of the buildings in Tangshan, which were mostly made of soil-brick and wood structures, almost completely collapsed. The Tangshan earthquake also caused damage to buildings in the nearby city of Tianjin, and cracks appeared in buildings in the northeast region of Beijing. News of the Tangshan earthquake was not initially reported externally, but it became known to the outside world after being reported by the English-language Hong Kong newspaper, the South China Morning Post.