KUNMING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- An intense tremor jolted Xue Na out of bed, and she immediately realized that it was an earthquake and rushed outdoors. It was a sleepless night in her village, but fortunately, no one was injured.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, a magnitude-5 earthquake jolted Honghe County in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, at 1:27 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2022. Later analysis showed that the seismic event happened near the Ailao Mountain-Honghe River shear zone and it affected eight townships.

The epicenter was near Anpin Village, which is one of the traditional villages nationwide under special state protection.

Thus, most of the village's buildings were preserved as structures in timber and brick to maintain their historic look, which at the same time causes them to be more vulnerable to the effects of such seismic events.

However, after thorough examination, it was found that the jolt had caused neither casualties nor the collapse of buildings, but only minor damage such as broken windows, cracked walls, and slippage of roof tiles, according to Zhang Peng, head of the housing and urban-rural development bureau of Honghe County.

Liu Xiaoming, an official with the prefecture's housing and urban-rural development authority, said that this earthquake had proved the effectiveness of a recent renovation program in rural areas.

"According to the standards issued by the housing and urban-rural development authorities at the provincial and national levels, all rural houses should be made more resistant to seismic activities after being renovated, especially the beam-column structure of wooden houses," said Liu.

As a province constantly affected by seismic activities, Yunnan involved 1,232 townships in its seismic retrofit projects which started in 2019, and buildings in Langdi Township, where Anpin is located, were designed to resist earthquakes with an intensity scale lower than seven.

By the end of October 2022, nearly 98,000 households province-wide had benefitted from the renovation program, and Anpin was one of the areas to reap such benefits.

Xue and her fellow villagers escaped to open spaces after feeling the jolt, and returned to their homes at 6 a.m. after local officials found no risks pertaining to the earthquake.

"We are lucky to have stronger houses than four years ago," said Zou Shaorong, an elder living in Anpin, whose house had its beam and corner wall strengthened with steel sheets in 2019.

Similar retrofit strategies prevented larger scale damage in this region.

After a magnitude-5 earthquake struck Qiaojia County of Zhaotong City in May 2020, damage assessment showed that all of the improved houses, either reconstructed or renovated, had sustained the jolt well -- in contrast to houses that were not renovated.

In early 2022, a magnitude-5.5 tremor hit Ninglang County of Lijiang City, causing 30 injuries and damages to more than 1,500 households.

Damage assessment after the tremor indicated that the retrofitted houses near the epicenter had experienced only slight damage, mostly roof tile slippage and wall cracks.

At dawn, rescuers and government officials started their evaluation work of potential damage in Xue's village, and this operation continued for days, covering all 13 townships in the county.

"I feel much safer to have them support us," said Xue.