Creating resilience is a proactive approach engaging with natural disaster reduction, which should be based on an understanding of the linkages between social– physical systems. Here we report a case study of Wenchuan earthquake, revealing that vulnerable built systems, degraded ecological systems, and socially disadvantaged communities were closely interrelated and largely existed in rural areas of inland China. This indicates that, while it is urgent to improve resilience of built systems, fundamentally, approaches should be adopted for rural dwellers to enter virtuous circles of economic activities as well as benign ecological cycles. Achieving these is challenging that will require systematic governance improvements in China. The lessons from Wenchuan earthquake suggest a research and policy emphasis on the interactions between social processes and ecological processes in inland rural areas of developing countries for enhancing physical resilience, which would facilitate achieving the mutual objectives on adaptation to earthquake-caused risks, weather-related disaster mitigation, and sustainable development.