Along the jagged China–Myanmar border, the landscape now carries scars that will last a generation. Villages in Yunnan and northern Shan State lie partly buried under landslides, their roads twisted, their power lines hanging like broken nerves. Survivors huddle in schoolyards and makeshift tents, clutching blankets and photographs, listening for the distant rumble of aftershocks that could bring more walls down without warning.
Yet amid the wreckage, a fragile determination is taking shape. Medics work sleepless shifts under floodlights, monks and farmers dig side by side, and volunteers stream in with food, medicine, and fuel. Governments are promising aid and reconstruction, but for those who lost everything in under a minute, recovery is measured hour by hour. They sift through rubble for memories, count the living, mourn the dead, and repeat a single vow: this is not where their story ends.
