Grieving China stops to mourn quake victims

From the heart of Beijing to the devastated southwest,China came to a standstill Monday to mourn its earthquake victims as the number of dead, missing or buried soared past 71,000.Air sirens wailed across the country as most motorists stopped and blared their horns, bringing an eerie halt to China's usually bustling big cities for three minutes from 2:28 pm (0628 GMT), the moment the quake struck a week earlier. Thousands of people, many university students, converged on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, holding up flags and chanting slogans of support for the victims, while trading was halted on China's stock markets.The crowd at Tiananmen shouted: "Jia you! Jia you!," an exhortation loosely translated as "Go! Go!", while punching the air with their fists.In the devastated town of Dujiangyan, 60 relatives of dead children held candles and incense at one of the thousands of flattened schools.One mother who lost both her daughters, Qiqi and Jiajia, collapsed in front of the school building."This is unbearable. I lost you both," she wailed.In solemn scenes on state television, Chinese soldiers earlier raised the national flag at Tiananmen Square and then lowered it to half-mast.The official grieving came as mudslides and a fresh aftershock hampered the relief efforts, even as two survivors were pulled out after a week under the rubble.The transport ministry reported that mudslides had buried more than 200 relief workers over the past several days.The government last week estimated more than 50,000 people died in the May 12 quake-measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale-that reduced entire towns to heaps of steel and concrete.But that number looked to be a huge underestimate with the Communist Party chief of worst-hit Sichuan saying that, as of late Sunday, 32,173 people had been confirmed killed there.Another 9,509 people were buried and 29,418 others missing, Liu Qibao said, according to Xinhua, bringing the overall figure to 71,100.
It has triggered an outpouring of emotion in the rapidly developing country of 1.3 billion people, with thousands offering to volunteer or using the Internet to send condolences.Others have offered to care for children made orphans in the disaster.The official China News Service said the mourning was unprecedented for a national disaster in the world's most populous country.Even the relay of the Beijing Olympic torch-which has elicited strong excitement across China in the run-up to the Games in August-was called off for three days as a mark of respect.The five-star red flag was also at half-staff in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong and at Chinese embassies overseas, according to state media.The government pulled entertainment programmes off television for three days. In normally bustling Shanghai, authorities ordered cinemas, karaoke bars and other leisure establishments to cease operations.Most national newspapers switched to black and white, at least on their front pages.The Beijing Times's front page was taken up by a photo of a candle and the number 32,476-the confirmed death toll as of Sunday.Miraculously, rescuers on Monday dug up two more survivors after they were buried under the rubble for up to 164 hours.However, hope of finding more is fading fast. Experts say the chances of survival greatly diminish three days after an earthquake.Heavy rain was also expected later this week in the disaster zone, making relief work even more arduous and putting at risk the 4.8 million people who have been left without homes.Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organisation, said authorities needed to be ready to dispatch health workers at short notice on any sign of disease outbreak."Continuing surveillance is extremely important,"Chan told Xinhua. With roads only reopened over the weekend, some families were only now finding out news about their loved ones.A group of 62 elderly Chinese tourists who were touring Sichuan-a scenic, mountainous province famous for its giant pandas and bamboo-made it back to the capital Chengdu late Sunday."It wasn't until Saturday that I knew my mother was alive," said 38-year-old Lu Yunhong, as he welcomed his mother after her two-day bus ride."I just can't describe how happy I am."Three officials in a city devastated by China's earthquake have been sacked in the first reports of punishments handed down for mishandling relief efforts, state media said on Monday.
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As in the days of Noah....