Nearly two months after the riots in Tibet, China's Olympic mood was further dampened by a massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake that killed tens of thousands, and injured and displaced many more ordinary Chinese in southwestern Sichuan province. Some of the worst scenes of destruction were in schools like the Juyuan Middle School shown here, where shoddy construction robbed many students of a chance to escape the collapsing buildings. In the classrooms that were still standing, however, the blackboards continued to call out with their cheery messages to "Welcome the Olympics", "Be Civilised", and "Set A New Trend".