Superstition now surrounds years in which the lunar calendar counts the eighth month twice.
It lasts until October 23. Yesterday's quake, registering 5.0 on the Richter scale and felt 160 kilometres away in Beijing, fulfils the premonition that natural disasters and cataclysmic political events occur in leap -August. Soothsayers suggest that just as the death of Mao followed shortly after the 1976 quake, the death of ailing patriarch Deng Xiaoping might be foretold . Hundreds of panic-stricken people ran into the streets as yesterday's tremor raced through the industrial city at 6.26 am. This time, however , there was no devastation or casualties .