Tens of millions of Chinese netizens paid tribute to the dead on the first anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake Tuesday.

More than 3.3 million people posted messages on popular Chinese web portal Sina.com by 7:30 p.m. and another 5 million paid respects on another Web portal Sohu.com.

Kaixin001.com, one of the most popular social networking Websites in China, also offered netizens a platform to pay respects to the 68,712 people died in the earthquake and express their best wishes to the survivors and quake-hit regions.

Netizens have posted more than 594,000 messages by 7:40 p.m. on the real-name platform that Kaixin001.com opened together with the official news agency Xinhua at 6 a.m. Monday.

At one point, the server froze due to the heavy Internet traffic, said Cheng Binghao, president of kaixin001.com (kaixin means happiness in English).

An online message by Lin Zeji on Kaixin001.com reads: "Cherish what you have! Be strong! Be persevering! Be resolute! Everything will be all right!"

Another message by Zhou Haili reads: "People may die, but true love lasts for eternity." Yanbin wrote: "The May 12 earthquake is a wound and deep sorrow for the Chinese people, but it is through this pain and sorrow that we see the solidarity, kindness, love, and care of the Chinese people."

Many messages also read: "Go Wenchuan! Go China!"

Wenchuan is the epicenter of the magnitude-8.0 earthquake that left more than 80,000 people dead or missing.

Some netizens also called for a three-minute silent mourning at 2:28 p.m. Tuesday, exactly when the quake happened last year.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2009)