But much further north just outside of Shanghai. I heard on the news many of the houses were made out of materials which were not sturdy. That could be very bad news.

Not very sturdy at all. China has a long history of horrible history of death tolls caused by earthquakes. Up to 800+ thousand were killed in one famous earthquake in Shaanxi in the 1500s. Luckily this quake was relatively small 5.6 I think so hopefully the death toll will be small.

Also we'll have to wait and see how well the government responds. That will make a big difference.

(Reuters) - Rescuers in southwestern China tried on Saturday to reach remote communities rocked by back-to-back earthquakes that killed at least 80 people and damaged tens of thousands of buildings, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Friday's shallow 5.6 magnitude quakes struck an impoverished, mountainous part of the country with poor infrastructure and telecommunications and the death toll could rise as news trickles out of cut-off areas, it said.

Most of the victims were from Yiliang county in Yunnan province, near the epicentre.

Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed boulder-covered roadways, abandoned cars and black smoke billowing from buildings.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/09/08/uk-quake-china-idUKBRE88702A20120908