BEICHUAN, China -- When Mu Xiangui and his family lost their home and most of their town to the catastrophic Sichuan earthquake in May, it seemed logical they would abandon this place that, suddenly, sat amid madness and devastation.

But they had neither the desire nor the money to leave. Six months since the disaster that killed 70,000 people and left another 18,000 missing, the chaos has calmed. Now the Mu family faces a different, but no less bleak...