President Hu Jintao on Saturday morning arrived in northwest China's Shaanxi Province to oversee quake relief operations.

After nearly two hours of flight from Beijing, Hu arrived in Hanzhong City, one of the worst-hit areas in Shaanxi during the devastating earthquake on May 12.

Hu arrived at Ningqiang County and visited children studying in makeshift shelters.

He extended his greetings to children in the quake-hit regions as well as children in the whole country ahead of the Children's Day which falls on June 1.

A magnitude 5.7 aftershock hit Ningqiang around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, leaving at least one injured, 860 houses destroyed and 3,100 damaged, official statistics showed.

Almost all the 340,000 locals in Ningqiang County were urged to live outdoors amid fear of possible aftershocks.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2008)