China has announced a series of measures aimed at improving its response to natural disasters, including satellite forecasting.
People in China are marking the first anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake in which more than 85,000 people died, including at least 5,300 children.
The moves come as the country marks the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake which hit Sichuan province.
Mourners are visiting ruins and graves, lighting incense to comfort the dead.
More than 80,000 people are believed to have died in the quake, including at least 5,300 children.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is in Sichuan for the anniversary and is expected to attend a ceremony at what was the epicentre of the quake.
Mourners have been visiting ruins and graves, lighting incense and ritual paper money to comfort the dead.
On the eve of the anniversary, President Hu said the disaster had galvanised the Chinese nation.
With rebuilding works due to finish a year ahead of schedule, the BBC correspondent in Beijing says some mainly elderly or disabled people in the region have still been unable to get mortgages for new homes.
He also praised the reconstruction effort, which is due to finish a full year ahead of schedule.
The new disaster response policy also calls for bigger relief stocks and training for thousands of officials.
"Confronted with this immense disaster, the masses of Chinese people and military were as one, forming a fortress of unified resolve," Mr Hu said, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The government says more than 70% of China's cities, and more than half the population, are vulnerable to serious natural disasters.
Tears
China was widely praised for its rapid response to the Sichuan quake, but there was public anger over what was perceived to be the shoddy building of schools.
In Beichuan, a town which was completely wiped out by the quake and is usually barred to the public, both locals and tourists poured into the area to mark the anniversary.
Parents who lost their children have already expressed fears they will not be allowed to properly commemorate the disaster's anniversary.
They lit candles and incense, as well as ritual paper money, to remember their loved ones who died when the entire town was destroyed.
Many parents want to return to the site of the schools where their children died.
"I feel the earthquake isn't over yet. Every time I see something about it, I feel like crying," Zhou Ya, a 20-year-old woman who lost several family members in Beichuan told reporters.
But the authorities have previously previously prevented them from doing so.
China has been widely praised for its rapid response to the Sichuan quake. But there are concerns that many of the parents of children who died when shoddy school buildings collapsed have been harassed - and even attacked and imprisoned - by officials determined to keep them quiet.
'Touched'
Meanwhile, details have been released of a letter from the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jibao, to school students in Sichuan. He told them he was touched by a book of paintings they sent him depicting their experiences.
It was called Beautiful Flowers - the words he wrote on a blackboard at the scene of the devastation.
And former Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang, visited a primary school in the hard-hit Beichuan county, holding an athletics class.
But the lesson was cut short after only five minutes because the school playground was too crowded with reporters and bystanders, the sina.com web portal reported.
