A view of Tianjin High Middle School in Lueyang county, northwest China's Shaanxi province.

A high school and a vocational education center damaged by a serious earthquake in Lueyang county, northwest China's Shaanxi province, finished its reconstruction and opened on Thursday, with the aid of the people and government of Tianjin Municipality.

Thousands of students moved to new classrooms, saying goodbye to their temporary school made of tents and prefab houses.

The Lueyang High School and the Lueyang Vocational Education Center were seriously damaged in the deadly earthquake, which hit southwest China's Sichuan province, northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces on May 12, 2008.

Under the unified arrangement of the central authorities, Tianjin municipality helped rebuild the two schools.

The two new schools, rebuilt on a new site, are designed by Tianjin Institute of Architectural Design to resist an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale.

The high school, with a floor area of 458,000 square meters and a designed capacity of 3 000 students, cost 149 million yuan. Facilities include teaching buildings, a library, a stadium and dormitories for teachers and students.

The 32,700-square-meter vocational school cost 127 million yuan and is designed to accommodate 1,800 students.

By Guo Changdong