Tourists visit the Tangshan Earthquake Museum in Tangshan, north China's Hebei province, July 28, 2010. The Tangshan Earthquake Museum is located inside the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Park. Opened Wednesday, the museum covers an area of some 4,000 square meters with some 400 pieces of exhibits of photographs and 300 material objects. [Xinhua]

SHIJIAZHUANG - A museum commemorating an earthquake that killed more than 240,000 people 34 years ago in north China's Tangshan city opened to public Wednesday on its anniversary.

Covering an area of 12,000 square meters, the museum displays more than 400 photographs and 600 pieces of articles concerning the 1976 earthquake and seven models that give a snapshot of the disaster and relief operations, said a spokesman with the museum.

The museum is located inside a memorial park built on the ruins of a locomotive plant which was destroyed by the quake.

The park, which opened to public in September last year, demonstrated the theme of "Revere nature, care for human life, pursue science, and remember the past," said a spokesman with the city's earthquake bureau. The park saw its busiest day of the year Wednesday as people flocked there to lay flowers in front of the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Wall to show love to their deceased family members and friends on the anniversary.

The 300-meter-long black marble wall, also called the "wailing wall" of China, bears the names of all the quake victims.

Most parts of the museum were open to public Wednesday.

Tangshan, an industrial city on the rim of Bohai Sea more than 200 km to the east of Beijing, was struck by the devastating earthquake in the early morning of July 28, 1976.

The Magnitude-7.8 quake is believed to be one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 20th Century. The quake killed 242,769 people, injured 164,851 others and left millions homeless.