"Most of the ancient buildings at the Erwang Temple (Temple of Two Kings) built 2,000 years ago in Dujiangyan collapsed, and all roads leading to the Wolong giant panda nature reserve were blocked," Zhang said.

In addition, quite a few scenic spots in other areas were ruined completely and cannot be rebuilt, such as the Yuanwang Cave (Cave of Ape King) in Shifang and Qianfo Mountain (Mountain of Thousand Buddhas) in Anxian County, he said.

Dujiangyan is about 100 kilometers away from the epicenter, Wenchuan County, while Wolong is only about 30 km from Wenchuan.

The centuries-old Dujiangyan Irrigation System also suffered damages but is still operational. In Wolong, the quake left five workers of the nature reserve dead, two pandas injured and six pandas missing -- five of them returned and workers were still looking for the other one.

The latest government statistics show the death toll from the devastating quake had increased by about 400 to 68,516 as of Thursday noon. Another 365,399 were injured and 19,350 others missing.

Tens of thousands of tourists from home and abroad were evacuated from quake-hit zones in Sichuan, and no foreigners died in the evacuation.

But tourists have been discouraged by the powerful quake and thousands of aftershocks and dare not travel to Sichuan for now.