China holds national day of mourning for quake dead
Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010
China is holding a national day of mourning for victims of the powerful earthquake in Qinghai province.
Flags are flying at half mast across the country and public entertainment curtailed as a mark of respect, one week after the quake hit.
The official death toll from the 6.9-magnitude tremor has now reached 2,039.
Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless by the earthquake but relief supplies are now pouring into worst hit area, the town of Jiegu.
Another 175 people are still missing after the earthquake and more than 12,000 are injured, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
Tibetans mourn
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says that, as it snowed in the provincial capital Xining, thousands of mourners dressed in black stood silently for three minutes. Car horns and sirens blared throughout the city.
Public entertainment, including some television channels, has been suspended nationwide: cinemas, karaoke bars and internet cafes are closed.
Near the quake's epicentre, at the town of Gyegu, the relief effort continues
The 24-hour ban extends online, with music and film websites suspended, our correspondent says. The biggest websites and newspaper mastheads have turned black or grey for the day.
Near the quake's epicentre, at the town of Jiegu, the relief effort continues with Buddhist monks and nuns working alongside the army and other rescue workers. Ninety-seven percent of Yushu's population is ethnic Tibetan.
Some reports said officials had begun telling monks to leave the quake area and leave rescue work to the government.
The Tibetan plateau has in the past been the scene of ethnic conflict.
However, the state media has portrayed the response to the quake as proof of underlying ethnic harmony.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader had asked to return to Qinghai to comfort the victims.
Our correspondent says that while he is loved by China's Tibetans, he is hated by the Chinese government, which regards him as a separatist. The government has ignored his request.
'Hostile forces'
Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have been heavily involved in the emergency operation, digging through the rubble for survivors and distributing aid.
Many people are living in temporary shelters in freezing conditions
They have also been collecting bodies and holding funerals.
Rescue workers are continuing to dig through the rubble in and around Jiegu in Yushu County.
Hopes were raised by the rescue of three people on Monday who had survived nearly a week under the ruins of buildings.
A four-year-old girl and an elderly woman were rescued from a house near Jiegu and later in the day, a woman in her 30s was pulled alive from her home.
Tens of thousands are now living in temporary shelters or tents in freezing overnight temperatures.
The officials have warned that temperatures in the Himalayan plateau region are expected to fall further.
Aid has been arriving in large amounts in the region, with convoys of trucks reportedly backed up for miles along the highway from the provincial capital, Xining.
Some schools have also reopened, although where school buildings have collapsed lessons have had to be held in tents.
Danzeng Jiangcuo, a maths teacher at Yushu No.3 Elementary School, said students were receiving psychological care as well as their usual lessons.
"We are trying to help them forget the disaster and not feel scared anymore," he told Xinhua.
China's President Hu Jintao, who visited Jiegu at the weekend, has promised an all-out effort to rebuild the region.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was born in Qinghai province but has not set foot in China since a failed Tibetan uprising more than 50 years ago.
At a government meeting on Monday, China's top parliamentary advisor, Jia Qinglin, warned of "hostile forces from abroad working to cause disruptions and sabotage" in the quake's aftermath, the Associated Press reports.
He did not specifically mention the Dalai Lama but he and his supporters are often referred to as "hostile forces" by the Communist government.
Flags are flying at half mast across the country and public entertainment curtailed as a mark of respect, one week after the quake hit.
The official death toll from the 6.9-magnitude tremor has now reached 2,039.
Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless by the earthquake but relief supplies are now pouring into worst hit area, the town of Jiegu.
Another 175 people are still missing after the earthquake and more than 12,000 are injured, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
Tibetans mourn
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says that, as it snowed in the provincial capital Xining, thousands of mourners dressed in black stood silently for three minutes. Car horns and sirens blared throughout the city.
Public entertainment, including some television channels, has been suspended nationwide: cinemas, karaoke bars and internet cafes are closed.
Near the quake's epicentre, at the town of Gyegu, the relief effort continues
The 24-hour ban extends online, with music and film websites suspended, our correspondent says. The biggest websites and newspaper mastheads have turned black or grey for the day.
Near the quake's epicentre, at the town of Jiegu, the relief effort continues with Buddhist monks and nuns working alongside the army and other rescue workers. Ninety-seven percent of Yushu's population is ethnic Tibetan.
Some reports said officials had begun telling monks to leave the quake area and leave rescue work to the government.
The Tibetan plateau has in the past been the scene of ethnic conflict.
However, the state media has portrayed the response to the quake as proof of underlying ethnic harmony.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader had asked to return to Qinghai to comfort the victims.
Our correspondent says that while he is loved by China's Tibetans, he is hated by the Chinese government, which regards him as a separatist. The government has ignored his request.
'Hostile forces'
Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have been heavily involved in the emergency operation, digging through the rubble for survivors and distributing aid.
Many people are living in temporary shelters in freezing conditions
They have also been collecting bodies and holding funerals.
Rescue workers are continuing to dig through the rubble in and around Jiegu in Yushu County.
Hopes were raised by the rescue of three people on Monday who had survived nearly a week under the ruins of buildings.
A four-year-old girl and an elderly woman were rescued from a house near Jiegu and later in the day, a woman in her 30s was pulled alive from her home.
Tens of thousands are now living in temporary shelters or tents in freezing overnight temperatures.
The officials have warned that temperatures in the Himalayan plateau region are expected to fall further.
Aid has been arriving in large amounts in the region, with convoys of trucks reportedly backed up for miles along the highway from the provincial capital, Xining.
Some schools have also reopened, although where school buildings have collapsed lessons have had to be held in tents.
Danzeng Jiangcuo, a maths teacher at Yushu No.3 Elementary School, said students were receiving psychological care as well as their usual lessons.
"We are trying to help them forget the disaster and not feel scared anymore," he told Xinhua.
China's President Hu Jintao, who visited Jiegu at the weekend, has promised an all-out effort to rebuild the region.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was born in Qinghai province but has not set foot in China since a failed Tibetan uprising more than 50 years ago.
At a government meeting on Monday, China's top parliamentary advisor, Jia Qinglin, warned of "hostile forces from abroad working to cause disruptions and sabotage" in the quake's aftermath, the Associated Press reports.
He did not specifically mention the Dalai Lama but he and his supporters are often referred to as "hostile forces" by the Communist government.
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