The 5/12/2008 earthquake in China was of magnitude 7.9. I doubt many of us even heard about it. The Chinese must be doing something right as far as building earthquake resistant houses.

Earthquake test of 7.5 magnitude on a Japanese building

I think you are talking about the earthquake withepicenter in chung-doo (sp?),china in early 2008.

It was all over NPR. Many school kids died and people lost their only child. So, the government decided to give exemption to parents from "one child" rule, who lost their child in earthquake.