(JIANG HONGJING)

Students of Beijie Primary School in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, pose for a group picture with dolls showing their gratitude for international assistance in quake-relief efforts, when they started the new semester along with their counterparts across the country on September 1.

All students in Dujiangyan have returned to permanent schools, after 48 primary and middle schools that were destroyed during last May's devastating earthquake completed reconstruction.

According to the provincial government, permanent schools are now available to 91.6 percent of students in Sichuan's earthquake-affected areas, and the rest will move out of prefabricated classrooms next spring.

An 8-magnitude earthquake jolted Sichuan on May 12, 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people. It also destroyed 3,340 schools.