2008-5-12 
FLASH(快讯): MAGNITUDE 7.6 QUAKE HITS WENCHUAN(汶川), SOUTHWEST CHINA'S SICHUAN PROVINCE
MAGNITUDE：the strength of an earthquake, measured with numbers from 1 to 10 where 10 is the most powerful
strong magnitude earthquake强度地震
intermediate magnitude earthquake中度地震
weak magnitude earthquake轻度地震
FLASH: EARTHQUAKE FELT IN OFFICE BUILDINGS AS FAR AS BEIJING AND SHANGHAI
FLASH: PREMIER WEN JIABAO RUSHES TO SICHUAN AFTER EARTHQUAKE HITS AS HU GIVES INSTRUCTIONS （胡锦涛作出重要指示）
FLASH: SICHUAN QUAKE DEATH TOLL RISES TO 7,651
FLASH: STRONG AFTERSHOCK余震 ROCKS CHENGDU IN SICHUAN PROVINCE AT 3:10PM

Wen appeals for 'calm, confidence, efficiency' after quake

Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C) arranges relief work of the earthquake（研究部署抗震救灾工作） during his flight for the disaster area today. Premier Wen flew into southwest China's Sichuan Province this afternoon and left straight for the quake-hit county of Wenchuan, 159 kilometers from the provincial capital of Chengdu, to oversee rescue work（指挥抢险救灾） there.


CHINA'S Premier Wen Jiabao has asked for public calm and efficient organization of disaster relief work after a major quake hit southwest China's Sichuan Province today.

Speaking as he flew to the area to oversee relief work, Wen said the CPC Central Committee and the cabinet had ordered Party officials at all levels on to the front line to organize disaster relief.
Officials should make every effort to help the people and to overcome fear and fatigue, Wen said aboard his flight to Taipingsi airport on the outskirts of the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu, this evening.
党中央，国务院要求，各级领导干部要站在抗震救灾第一线，身先士卒，带领广大群众做好抗震救灾工作，发扬不怕牺牲不怕疲劳，连续作战的作风，一切想着人民，一切为了人民，一切为人民的利益而工作。

"My fellow Chinese, facing such a severe disaster, we need calm, confidence, courage and efficient organization, he said.
“同胞们，同志们，在灾害面前，最重要的是镇定，信心，勇气和强有力的指导。”
"I believe we can certainly overcome the disaster with the public and the military working together under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the government."
我相信在党中央和国务院的坚强领导下，广大军民团结一致，众志成城，我们一定能够战胜这场特别重大的地震灾害。-（在中文报上找到的）


The quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 2:28pm today, according to the State Seismological Bureau (SSB).

The epicenter震中 of the quake was located 31 degrees north(北纬) and 103.4 degrees east（东经）, the bureau said.

THE China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center卧龙大熊猫自然保护区 in the worst quake-hit area of southwest China was out of contact, the State Forestry Administration (SFA)国家林业局 said yesterday.

All communication services linking the center with the outside were cut after a major earthquake hit the western part of Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, an SFA official said.

The forestry department of Sichuan provincial government also had no information from the center, he said.

About 130 giant pandas are living in the center and another 150 wild pandas on the Wolong reserve自然保护区.

Xinhua

Giant pandas in Wolong confirmed safe after quake
2008-5-13

Wen reemphasizes saving lives in quake relief

Premier Wen inspects quake-hit hospital, school

2008-5-13

Chinese Pemier Wen Jiabao (2nd R) speaks to buried people at a ruined hospital in Dujiangyan city of southwest China's Sichuan Province yesterday. Premier Wen flew into southwest China's Sichuan Province yesterday.

CHINESE Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to save as many lives as the rescue teams can in southwest China's Sichuan Province which was hit by a major quake on Monday afternoon.

Wen made the remarks during his inspections at a hospital and a school in Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, partly damaged by the quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.

The road from Dujiangyan to Wenchuan, epicenter of the quake, was blocked by rock and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams in the city.

"Please just hold on, people are going to get you out of there!" the Premier told the people trapped in the collapsed buildings of the hospital in a loudspeaker.

When comforting patients and medical staffs in the hospital, Wen asked rescuing troops to search every corner for people waiting for salvation and carry out the rescue work in an orderly way.

"If there is a gleam of hope, we will do all the best to save the people," the Premier vowed at a middle school of Juyuan town, adding that the rescuing team would not rest until the last one under the ruin was saved.

"The medical experts are coming, the rescuing planes will land soon," Wen told people crying for help in the school, "I was told many trapped people have hopes to survive from the disaster."

He made a three-time bow to pay his respect to the bodies of the people killed by the quake laid on the school's square, saying that he was very depressed.

Premier Wen told officials at the temporary headquarters for disaster relief in Dujiangyan that roads to Wenchuan should be recovered as soon as possible at all costs.

"The road is the key for the relief work since we can only know the situation there when we can send people and we can only transport the injured out when the road is clean," Wen said.

RESCUE teams and PLA soldiers were ordered to do whatever is needed to reach quake-hit areas of Sichuan Province today by Premier Wen Jiabao.

Wen ordered PLA troops to enter the stricken region as soon as possible, even if they need to walk. The deadline to clear blocked roads is midnight.

Wen arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital, yesterday afternoon and held an emergency meeting at 7am in Dujiangyan City, a city less than 100 kilometers from the quake's epicenter in Wenchuan County.

"We must try our best to open up roads and rescue people trapped in the disaster-hit areas," Wen reportedly said at the meeting.

The 7.8-magnitude quake hit yesterday afternoon and has killed a total of 9,219 people in Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou and Hubei, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a release issued at 7am.

The road from Dujiangyan, a city northwest of Chengdu, to Wenchuan was blocked by boulders and mudslides, holding up rescue workers, medical teams and other disaster relief personnel.

"At present, we have great difficulty in carrying out rescue work," Wen said. "Blocked roads, disrupted communications and continuous rainfall have all made it extremely difficult to reach the disaster-hit areas.

"People's lives and property are the top priorities and many people are still trapped under ruble," the premier continued. "We must treasure every second and do our utmost to save the survivors."

CHINESE President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart George W. Bush held a telephone conversation today, during which they discussed the latest massive earthquake in southwest China, bilateral ties and Tibet.

Bush said the United States expressed deep concerns over the quake in Sichuan province and sympathy toward the Chinese people, and is willing to provide any possible assistance for disaster relief.

Hu extended his thanks to Bush, adding that the Chinese people feel deeply sorrowful about the loss of lives of their compatriots in the strong quake.

The Chinese government is sparing no efforts in disaster relief, rescuing the injured, properly arranging the daily life of the people in the disaster areas so that social order there can be restored as soon as possible, Hu said.

A 7.8-magnitude quake rocked Wenchuan county, 159 km northwest of the Sichuan province's capital of Chengdu, at 2:28pm yesterday, killing thousands of people in eight affected provinces.

Hu said China-US ties, under the joint efforts of both sides, have moved forward continuously in recent years.

The leaderships of the two countries and officials at other levels have carried out frequent visits, while exchanges and cooperation in various fields have made progress, he added.

Hu expressed hope that the fourth-round China-US strategic economic dialogue next month in Washington will produce positive results.

"I would like to, together with President Bush, make the China-US constructive and cooperative ties develop in a continuous, healthy and steady way," he said,

Hu also outlined China's stance on the Tibet issue. He said the Tibet issue is one of China's internal affairs, and affects the feelings of the Chinese people.

We hope the US side would tackle related issues with an objective and fair-minded attitude and in a cautious and proper way, and understand and support China's justified stance, Hu added.

Hu and Bush also expressed their expectation toward their meetings at the dialogue between G8 and some developing countries in Japan's Hokkaido in July as well as during the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

A rescuer from central China's Henan Province gathers schoolbags collected from the debris残骸 of the Hongbai Town Central Primary School in Shifang on Thursday, Sichuan Province.

China's national flag flies at half-mast半旗 after the flag-raising ceremony升旗仪式 on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing today. China today begins a three-day national mourning全国哀悼 for the tens of thousands of people killed in a powerful earthquake which struck the country's southwest on May 12. -Xinhua

A nation mourns

2008-5-20

A woman attaches a paper flower to a steel bar amid the rubble碎砖 of a collapsed school in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province yesterday. She made the flower from pages torn from children's textbooks found at the disaster site.

A man holds up the Chinese flag during three minutes of silence for the Sichuan earthquake victims at the Bund外滩, one of Shanghai's best known landmarks地标, yesterday. Flags flew at half-mast, public entertainment was canceled and 1.3 billion people across the country stood in silent tribute默哀 at 2:28pm, exactly one week after a magnitude-8 earthquake hit southwestern China's Sichuan Province. The nation yesterday began three days of mourning for the people who died in the massive earthquake.

CONSTRUCTION workers put down their tools, cars stopped in the street, and rescuers briefly paused in their search for survivors amid the rubble of earthquake devastation.

Busy, bustling China came to a standstill停止 yesterday afternoon for three minutes to mourn the estimated 50,000 people killed since a massive earthquake hit Sichuan Province exactly one week earlier.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top officials, in dark suits with a white flower in their lapel翻领, bowed their heads in tribute in the central government compound of Zhongnanhai.

Hundreds gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where the Chinese flag was lowered to half-mast in a solemn 庄严的 ceremony. At 2:28pm, the crowd fell silent and stood with heads bowed while air raid sirens空袭警报 wailed哀号. Traffic came to a halt and drivers sounded their horns.

When the three minutes were over, the crowd began chanting唱 and punching their fists in the air. "Go China," "Go Sichuan," "Long Live China," they shouted.

Shop, restaurant and office workers had emptied流入 into the streets to join the tribute, scenes mirrored across China.

In quake-hit受灾 Beichuan County, rescuers in orange jumpsuits stopped digging and stood quietly amid the rubble with eyes downcast, cradling their white hardhats安全帽. "Our hearts are so heavy, so many of our compatriots are dead. As long as we try our best, we have some small hope," said Ma Cangchuan, a rescuer.

Trade was suspended on stock and commodities exchanges on China's mainland during the three-minute period. In Hong Kong, staff at Disneyland closed rides and halted performances. In Tibet, a ceremony was held on the square of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, where 26 Tibetan and Han volunteers sat in the shape of a heart, lighting 40 candles to symbolize brightness and hope.

At the headquarters of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games北京奥组委, more than 200 employees gathered in front of the building, facing southwest toward Sichuan, in silent tribute. Chinese diplomatic missions abroad中国驻外使馆 also observed the mourning and condolence books were opened in the Foreign Ministry and Chinese embassies and consulates around the world.

Yesterday's events underscored强调 the deep impact China's worst natural disaster in three decades has had on its people.

"Such large-scale activity nationwide for victims in Sichuan mirror the growth of a nation," said the writer Zhang Kangkang. "The activities reflect an enhanced awareness of ordinary people as a result of great changes during the three decades since reform and opening-up."

The mourning was proposed by history professor Ge Jianxiong of Fudan University in Shanghai, in an article in the Nanfang Daily. But even if he hadn't proposed it, Ge said, the government would have done the same. "It shows respect for the dead and care for the living by the government and people," he said.

Yesterday saw the start of an unprecedented national mourning, the first of its kind for ordinary citizens. During the three-day period, all public entertainment has been suspended. The Olympics torch relay was also put off until Thursday.

Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday ordered troops to expand coverage of their rescue and reach all affected villages within 24 hours. He also ordered stepped-up epidemic prevention work.

Meanwhile, the country has been mobilized for rescue and relief work.

China had received 10.834 billion yuan (US$1.55 billion) in cash and goods for earthquake relief from donors at home and abroad as of 1pm yesterday, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The disaster relief fund from the central budget rose to 5.81 billion yuan as of 3pm yesterday, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Agencies/Shanghai Daily

UN Security Council mourns quake victims

2008-5-21

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and representatives of the UN Security Council members stand in a silent tribute to the Chinese earthquake victims, during a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, the United States, yesterday.