Over 200 Chinese and foreign rescuers participated in an international earthquake relief exercise held in Shijiazhuang under the framework of the United Nations.

 

Local residents in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei Province, also held an exercise on rescue and survival in an earthquake.

 

The drills served as a test of China's abilities to cooperate with international rescuers, an opportunity for Chinese rescuers to learn from their foreign counterparts, and to show off the country's achievements in earthquake relief, said Zhao Heping, deputy director of the State Seismological Bureau.

 

Seventeen foreign teams came from Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, India, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Italy, Sweden, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States and Nepal.

 

Seventeen Chinese provincial rescue teams joined in the drills.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2006)