By Huang Zhiling and Xu Jingxing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-20 07:24

QINGCHUAN, Sichuan: Zhong Jiaming, 33, clearly remembers the last time he called his mother over the phone in Qingchuan county, the northernmost part of Sichuan that borders Gansu province.

"It was May 11, Mother's Day. I told mom that I would build a house in Qingchuan and live with her there because houses in Chengdu are very expensive and I cannot afford one," said the manager of a property management firm in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

The quake that struck the next day claimed his mother and father, who lived in the six-story dormitory building of the county's traditional Chinese medicine hospital. With them is gone Zhong's dream of owning a house in his once beautiful hometown.

"About 95 per cent of the houses in the county of 250,000 people have collapsed or have been damaged, leaving almost the entire county homeless," said Yuan Yuxian, chief of the county's civil affairs bureau.

More than 2,670 people died and about 12,980 were injured in the quake. "The death toll could rise further because many people are still buried under the debris of buildings," Yuan said.

Since Qingchuan is a mountainous county, it is very difficult for cranes to reach the damaged sites.

About 30,000 people have to be provided shelter immediately in Qingchuan, but the county has 11,000 tents. "It is very difficult to pitch a tent in the mountains because the land is not flat," Yuan said.

The lack of shelter, and the uncertainty in food and water supply have forced many of the quake survivors to flee Qingchuan. Groups of people can be seen on the roads, walking out of the county.

Zhang Hui, 25, of Xiaojin village in Hongguang township was carrying her 18-month son, and her husband Wang Dianmang had a heavy bag of grain and clothes on his back. They had walked for four hours through the mountains to reach Guanzhuang yesterday afternoon.

A government relief station has been handing out bottled water and instant noodles to people fleeing to safer places. "We will walk to Guangyuan, which is about 100 km from Qingchuan to seek shelter at a relative's place," Zhang said.

(China Daily 05/20/2008 page3)