Premier lifts spirits as stricken area rebuilds

2008-9-4

PREMIER Wen Jiabao has raised morale among residents over the past four days during a visit to southwestern Sichuan Province nearly four months after the devastating May 12 earthquake.

"Relief work so far is successful," said the premier, on his fourth visit to Sichuan since the quake. "Now we enter a critical stage to boost rehabilitation."

With a combination of temporary housing and repaired buildings, about 4.45 million homeless families in the province have found accommodation.

Wen visited Zaoshu Village in Qingchuan County, one of the worst-hit areas, as villagers were busy building or repairing houses.

A couple, Shi Guangwu and Zhang Zhengfang, told the premier that they received a subsidy of 23,000 yuan (US$3,359) from the government to build a new residence.

Under a provincial government policy issued in June, rural families who lost their homes will build new ones under government supervision. Each will receive about 20,000 yuan from the government.

"I am glad to see farmers in the quake area are busy rebuilding their homes with their own hands," said Wen. "As long as we carefully plan and organize the work, new houses will rise soon."

During the trip beginning on Sunday, Wen also visited an urban community in Qingchuan. Permanent home rebuilding has not started in the urban area yet as the government is working on a subsidy policy for survivors.

Wen explained to residents that work had to be done to evaluate the condition of damaged houses and develop a rehabilitation plan.

"As soon as a policy is formulated, rebuilding will start," he said.

Besides residential buildings, schools and hospitals were priorities in rehabilitation, the premier said.

At a temporary hospital in Qingchuan, Wen promised patients a new hospital would soon be built and medical facilities would be better than before the quake. He thanked doctors and nurses from eastern China's Zhejiang Province, who were there helping local residents.

On the morning after the earthquake, the country saw Wen standing amid the rubble of the Xinjian Primary School in Dujiangyan City, encouraging a trapped child through a crack in the ground. Wen returned to this school, which is now a makeshift building, during this visit.

More than 240 students in the school were killed in the quake.

Standing in a classroom before the blackboard, he said to the students: "You are our country's future. I believe beautiful flowers will blossom over the debris of the earthquake."

Children presented handmade cards to Wen and invited him to take photos with them. The premier presented flowers and bowed three times under the national flag on the campus to mourn the victims.

At Yongquan Village in Deyang City, people are again harvesting rice and planting potatoes. Wen went into the field, asking farmers about their crop yield. Told there was a bumper rice harvest despite the quake, he urged local officials to resume production as soon as possible where conditions allowed.

The worst-hit Beichuan County has to be relocated. Wen again visited the debris where the county seat was once located. He trudged on foot for an hour through the debris "with a heavy heart." He laid a wreath at a mass burial site of quake victims and observed one-minute's silence together with his entourage.

He told survivor Wang Dan, a 26-year-old woman of the Qiang ethnic group, that the pain was overwhelming but the Beichuan people were strong. "Although half of the population perished, the other half - the survivors - will build a new Beichuan with hope," he said.

When invited by Wang to come again when the new Beichuan is built, Wen promised he would visit the place, which he would remember for life.