All visitors must be on a group tour to enter the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, which means that only a few visitors make it as far as the town of Taplejung, the last point of civilization (which itself is gradually recovering from a deadly and destructive earthquake that hit in September 2011).

BBC: Give me a home where the snow leopards roam

Its most destructive on record was an 8.4 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 1, 1923 on the main, central, island of Honshu.

FORBES: China Sends Rescue Workers to Quake Ravaged Japan-Xinhua

Saturday's quake rekindled memories of the 2008 earthquake, which measured 7.9 and ranks among the most destructive natural disasters in recent Chinese history.

WSJ: Quake Kills More Than 100 in Sichuan

It was Mexico's worst natural disaster since the huge earthquake that killed thousands in the capital in 1985, and far more destructive and deadly than the hurricane that struck Acapulco late last year, though far less reported.

ECONOMIST: Mexico