CHRONOLOGY - Major earthquakes in China 

The most devastating earthquake to hit China in three decades killed up to 9,000 people on Monday as schools, factories and other buildings were toppled, with the death toll likely to soar.
   
Here are details of some of the biggest earthquakes in China in the last 30 years:
   
May 12, 2008 - At least 8,500 people were killed in Sichuan province alone after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region.
   
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 the remote northwestern region of Xinjiang.
   
January 1998 - At least 47 people are killed and more than 2,000 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.2 rocks northern Hebei province, 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 - 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.