Nearly a quarter were sheltered by government-run boarding schools for quake orphans and the rest were raised by large government enterprises.

Today, Chinese people have begun to reconsider the three Tangshan modes of orphan resettlement.

"I have been told by many of the grown-up orphans that the best thing is to be sheltered at orphan schools," said Su Youpo, director of the Hebei Provincial Earthquake Engineering Research Center, who had joined in rebuilding Tangshan and is friends with many Tangshan quake orphans.

"At orphan schools, the children felt the same as others because their experiences were almost the same, so they could maintain their mental equilibrium," he said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Zhou Jie, a Tangshan quake orphan who asked to be quoted under an alias, said that she had been adopted by her aunt in Beijing and then an uncle in a southern Chinese city.

"I had a feeling of estrangement even they treated me in a very nice way, just like their own daughter. I couldn't blend into their families," she said.

"Quake orphan" is a word Zhou has been trying to avoid being mentioned, just as many other Tangshan quake orphans, who even declined to give their names when donating money to the new quake survivors.

The orphan school was a successful mode, according to 66-year-old Yang Guifang, deputy head of the then Tangshan Yuhong School -- one of the government-run boarding schools for quake orphans.

"At an orphan school, or in a large family, similar experiences can help unite the children and help them get rid of their mental trauma in a relatively quick way," she said.

"But for introverted children, we'd better give them a home and let them feel the warmth of a family, because at schools with so many children, some may be neglected unintentionally," she added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2008)