By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-23 07:24

MIANYANG, Sichuan: Tang Deyin feels restless even though he and his family are in the safety of Jiuzhou Stadium now.

The stadium is the temporary home to about 20,000 people from Beichuan, Pingwu and Anxian who survived the May 12 earthquake but lost their homes.

Tang, 40, and all his neighbors in Beichuan survived the deadly quake and the mudslides that continued for the next two days.

He, his wife and son share a tent with his two brothers' families in the stadium. The other families from the village have been moved into nearby tents.

Tang's extended family has enough to eat, uses tap water to wash clothes and knows who to turn to if anything is needed or if a person falls sick.

But he doesn't like the idle life in the relief camp. Although there is nothing left at home, "we still have our hands ... we are ready to start from scratch", he says. That's why he and his brothers' families want to start reconstruction as soon as possible.

He has only two hopes now: that the government would help them find a place to build their new "home village" away from the high mountains, and that he and his fellow villagers stick together in the new village.

"You know, for ages, we have shared happiness and hardship," Tang says. "My brothers agree with me." He plans to persuade more families into joining him. By staying together, "we can only become stronger".

(China Daily 05/23/2008 page3)