Premier Wen visits SW China quake zone

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for comprehensive consideration to be given in the reconstruction at the quake-stricken Yingjiang county in southwest China's Yunnan province.

"It is necessary to integrate reconstruction and a number of other purposes, including poverty eradication through development and renovation of dilapidated houses and construction of quake-proof housing in rural areas," said Wen during a two-day inspection tour to Yingjiang. The visit ended on Saturday.

"A new and more beautiful Yingjiang will eventually take shape through our solid and hard work," said Wen.

Yingjiang county, which is a poverty-ridden area located near the border with Myanmar, was jolted by a 5.8-magnitude earthquake on March 10, causing 25 deaths and more than 300 injuries. Most of the inhabitants in the county are people from ethnic groups such as Dai, Jingpo, Lisu and De'ang nationalities.

During his inspection tour, Wen visited venues including two quake-ravaged villages, a portion of the quake-damaged embankment of the Daying River, one quake-damaged primary school, one center where more than 540 tents have been installed to house well over 3,300 quake stricken victims. He also chatted with quake-stricken villagers, primary schoolers, as well as soldiers from the People's Liberation Army who have been there to help with the relief work.

After being briefed about quake relief work of the past week, Wen stressed five more priorities in future efforts in this regard.

For a start, efforts should be made to ensure everyone in the quake-hit areas have food to eat and a place to live. A successful job should be done in epidemic prevention in the quake zone, where market supply should also be guaranteed with stable commodity prices.

It is necessary to carry out thorough checks into the situation of local houses and infrastructure to facilitate discovery and timely removal of problems and strengthen monitoring of locations with hidden dangers to prevent occurrence of the secondary geological disasters.

"Normal order of production and living should be resumed as early as possible, especially the functioning of public services including hospitals, banks," said the Chinese premier.

"A scientific planning should be introduced in arranging the reconstruction after the quake, while it is also necessary to set standards for quake resistance in architechture. But the focus should go for helping urban and rural residents rebuild housing," said Wen, who also stressed the importance of enhancing the support of recovery and reconstruction in quake zone.

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Rescuers search for survivors after China's quake

Soldiers with sniffer dogs and life detectors kept searching in the rubble Friday for survivors after a moderate quake hit a densely-inhabited town in southwest China a day ago.

The 5.8-magnitude tremor, which jolted Yingjiang County of Yunnan Province near the border with Myanmar, has left 25 people dead and 250 others injured.

The county has a population of 300,000 people and is home to many ethnic groups.

The youngest victim was 3 years old. Among those killed were five students. Doctors said 134 people were seriously injured.

The earthquake destroyed more than 18,000 houses and damaged around 50,000 others.

Rescuers were ordered to search every damaged building for survivors.

Gao Lei, a 21-year-old firefighter, staggered through the debris of Yongsheng Hotel along with five fellow firefighters and three sniffer dogs.

"We haven't found any sign of people buried here," said Gao.

"Though, we found three people buried in an adjacent tailor's shop. They are safe now," he said.

Many soldiers used their hands to dig through the rubble as machines could not be operated there

More than 6,100 people, including soldiers, police officers, medical staff, and civilians, have participated in the rescue operation, saving at least 40 trapped people and sending more than 200 injured people to hospital.

The county needs 5,000 more tents for the homeless, said Zhao Jin, Party chief of Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong, which administers Yingjiang.

Zhao said he had asked the provincial government for help.

The provincial and local governments have earmarked 23 million yuan (3.49 million U.S. dollars) in emergency aid to the quake-hit regions.

"We are now short of disinfectant, crucial for the post-quake epidemic prevention work," said Zhang Tao, president of the People's Hospital of Yingjiang.

About 60 injured people have to stay in tents and 74 others were transferred to other hospitals for surgery as part of the hospital's building was damaged and power supply has not been fully resumed there, Zhang said.

The quake first hit the county at 12:58 p.m., followed by seven aftershocks measuring up to 4.7 on the Richter scale.

Experts have not ruled out the possibility that stronger quakes might hit the region and they could not say that the first magnitude-5.8 tremor was the main quake.

Prior to the quake, more than 1,200 minor tremors were recorded in the region over the last two months.