BLEAK PROSPECTS: 'We don't have any insurance for life or property loss. We don't know how we're going to make a living.' - MADAM HU QUNLI, whose cosmetics shop was damaged by the quake, then looted. She and her husband estimate their losses to be more than 50,000 yuan (S$9,800). -- PHOTO: AFP

Madam Hu Qunli and her husband Xiao Juming are now left with no income. They have a son to support at university.

Small businesses in this badly damaged district are counting their losses after the earthquake which measured 8.0 on the Richter scale struck on May 12, killing more than 60,000 people.

The couple lived at the back of the shop they operated for 13 years on a narrow street lined with small traders packed side-by-side. The roofs of some of these enterprises have collapsed and the buildings are now just a pile of bricks.

Others that still stand are shuttered. The rubble-strewn street is virtually deserted and silent, except for the chirping of birds.

Madam Hu said they would take the belongings that remained to her mother's rural home.

'We're uncertain whether we can run this business. We suffered so much damage financially,' she said, estimating their losses to be more than 50,000 yuan (S$9,800).

'We don't have any insurance for life or property loss.'

She is worried, she said, about how they would support their son, a student at Chengdu Electronic Technology University.

'We don't know how we're going to make a living,' she said.

Besides the human cost, the earthquake has shattered the economy of south-western Sichuan province, an agricultural region which has mostly escaped China's economic boom.

The government estimates that businesses suffered more than US$3.59 billion (S$4.9 billion) in financial losses due to the quake.

In a bid to help victims, the government has ordered banks to forgive debts that cannot be repaid due to the disaster and has offered some 82.7 billion yuan in credit.

But Madam Wang Guoxiu, who lost the hot-pot restaurant she ran for seven years and with it the 80,000 yuan that she had invested, is waiting to see what type of compensation the government might offer.

Apart from the small businesses, tourism operators are also reeling from the damage to the industry.

The industry was already hurting from a shutdown of areas bordering Tibet following a government crackdown on protests there against Chinese rule in March.

Tourism operators say the earthquake has hurt the sector even further.

'There's nothing much to see anymore,' said Singaporean Sim Kwan Wah, 44, who runs Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel in the provincial capital Chengdu with his wife.

He said he had fewer than 50 guests on one recent day, down from about 160 per day before the disaster.

Business has been so bad that competitors have slashed their nightly accommodation rates to as low as five yuan, he added.

Fear is another factor affecting business, tour operators said.

'Nobody wants to come to an earthquake area,' said Mr Pepe Gazquez, 31, of Peptours in Chengdu.

'We're going to lose a lot of clients, of course.'

Sichuan is known for its spectacular scenery, pandas and cultural attractions.

Scenic spots in the quake zone will definitely not reopen in the short term, said Mr Miao Yuyan, an official from the Sichuan Tourism Bureau.

Another bureau official estimated tourism infrastructure losses at 500 billion yuan but said it was too soon to estimate the lost revenue.

Mr Gazquez said he is trying to develop new itineraries for clients which avoid areas that remain off limits.

'We want to bring people here because now I think tourism is very important for Sichuan, for reconstruction of the place,' he said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE