Across China: Shandong

Students return to school

More than 500 poverty-stricken primary and high school students from the earthquake-affected areas in Sichuan finished their one-year study in Rizhao of Shandong yesterday and went back to their hometowns.

The students, including more than 300 orphans, have studied and lived in a temporary welfare boarding school since the May 12 earthquake last year. The school was built by China Children and Teenagers' Fund and Rizhao Steel and Iron Company. To create a better living and study environment for the students, the Rizhao company invested more than 100 million yuan to build three new schools in Chengdu, Sichuan, where the students will continue their studies as a new semester begins in September.