By Keen Zhang
China.org.cn correspondent reporting from Sichuan
zhangr@china.org.cn

  

A smile is a light in face of disaster.  

On China's day of national mourning, a team of China.org.cn reporters drove to Shifang City, one of the worst hit mountain areas in Sichuan. The local government is doing its best to help survivors, but the city remains on earthquake alert. Chinese President Hu Jintao had visited Shifang the previous day.

At 2:28 PM yesterday, we stood together with the people of Shifang to observe a three minute silence in memory of those who died, and in solidarity with those who survived the massive deadly earthquake that struck Sichuan area a week ago. Meanwhile across China air raid sirens, car horns, trains, and ships let out a collective wail of grief.

 

A local relief camp.  

One local family told us how they had made their own way to the relief camp after the earthquake. The local government had temporarily housed them with hundreds of other in the city's football stadium. They were in good spirits but unclear what will happen to them next or where they will eventually live. Only the children and elderly were in the tent that is their temporary home, the rest of the family had gone to retrieve belongings from the ruins of their house.

Gao Feng, a local relief official told us that they have done everything they can to help victims of the quake, and had successfully prevented an outbreak of disease. But with more survivors arriving every day from remote mountain areas, he wondered where they will all be accommodated.

For the rest of the people in the city, life seemed to have returned to normal.