Major earthquakes in China

The tremor, centred 92 km northwest of Chengdu, was felt as far away as Bangkok, where office buildings swayed with the impact.

The following is a chronology of some of the biggest earthquakes in China in recent decades:

May 12, 2008 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 shakes China's Sichuan province.

March 21, 2008 - An earthquake measuring 7.2 hits the remote northwestern region of Xinjiang; damage was limited.

February 2003 - At least 94 people are killed and more than 200 injured when a quake measuring 6.8 hits sparsely populated Jiashi county in Xinjiang.

January 1998 - At least 47 people are killed and more than 2,000 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.2 rocks Hebei, devastating mud and brick homes in two rural counties.

April 1997 - A strong earthquake measuring 6.6 hits Xinjiang, killing nine people and injuring 60.

January 1997 - An earthquake measuring 6.4 kills up to 50 people and injures more than 40 in Xinjiang.

May 1996 - Earthquake measuring 6.4 rocks Inner Mongolia, killing 15 people and injuring more than 200. Nearly 400 aftershocks follow.

March 1996 - Earthquake measuring 6.9 jolts Xinjiang, killing 26 people, injuring 128.

February 1996 - Earthquake measuring 7.0 wrecks scenic mountain town of Lijiang in Yunnan, killing at least 304 people and injuring more than 16,000.

October 1995 - Earthquake in Yunnan kills 50 and injures more than 6,000. The 6.5 tremor leaves 170,000 people homeless.

April 1990 - Earthquake measuring 6.9 kills 126 people in northwestern Qinghai province.

October 1989 - Series of tremors in northern Shanxi and Hebei provinces kill 29 people and leave 60,000 homeless.

November 1988 - Earthquake measuring 7.6 devastates remote areas in Yunnan, killing at least 730 people and destroying about 400,000 homes.

August 1985 - Xinjiang hit by earthquake that kills 67 people and injures more than 100. The tremor measures 7.4.

April 1985 - Earthquake measuring 6.3 kills 22 in Yunnan.

July 1976 - At least 270,500 people die when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale flattens the northern city of Tangshan.