Report from Xinhua on the latest death toll, and a national day of mourning for the Yushu earthquake victims.
BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) — To mourn the victims of a strong earthquake in northwest China’s Qinghai Province, national flags will fly at half-mast in the country and its embassies and consulates overseas on Wednesday, according to the State Council Tuesday.
To express the deep condolences for the quake victims, public entertainment will also be suspended on Wednesday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said in an announcement.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, the 7.1-magnitude quake, which struck the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu last Wednesday, had killed more than 2,000 while 195 people were still missing, the rescue headquarters said.
Baoxing, according to government reports, was one of the worst affected areas in the 12 May 2008 earthquake; 3 died, 338 were injured and altogether more than 41,000 people were affected in Baoxing, which is 80% of the total population in the county.
More than 800 houses collapsed, and up till May 11th 2009, 652 of them had commenced reconstruction and 435 had completed reconstruction. 2 middle schools are being rebuilt with the help of Hainan province and 1 Hope Elementary school has been donated by a central government research office in the most affected town called Raozi, which is of Tibetan ethnicity.
The Chinese government has promised to help survivors of last year’s devastating Wenchuan earthquake to move into new houses before the end of this year, according to a human rights document published here on Monday.
The rebuilding of collapsed or seriously destroyed farmers’ houses will be basically completed to ensure they can “move into new houses by the end of December 2009,” says the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010).The government will take a series of measures to provide jobs for over 1 million people in the restoration areas, with emphasis on finding a job for at least one member of each jobless family, according to the document, published by the Information Office of the State Council, or Cabinet.
In these areas, the state will ensure urban residents’ average disposable income and rural residents’ average net income surpassing the levels before the earthquake, with a secured basic living standard for all people in the quake-devastated areas, says the action plan.
The government will rebuild and restore elementary and middle schools to a higher safety level, and priority is given to restoring and rebuilding county-level hospitals and public service institutions for disease prevention and control, women’s and children’s health care and family planning, as well as township-level clinics and township family planning service centers.
“Persistently supervising and checking the use of relief funds and materials to ensure that they are all sent to and used for people in the disaster-hit areas and for the smooth progress of the rehabilitation and reconstruction work”, says the action plan.
BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) — Liu Daihe, 43, lights a cigarette passed by his cousin Liu Daishu and spreads the mahjong tiles over the table. Puffing smoke into the 20-square-meter temporary house, he settles down to idle away another day with friends and relatives.
It is a typical snapshot on the 11,000-household interim community to the north of Mianzhu, one of the most damaged cities of the May 12 earthquake that left more than 80,000 Chinese dead or missing. Liu and the 40,000 inhabitants are enveloped in an atmosphere of both hope and ennui that contrasts with a clearly felt grief eight months ago.
Demands of life
Before the catastrophe, Liu was a phosphorous miner for many years at Qingping town of Mianzhu. But the mine, one of the local pillar industries, was swallowed by the quake along with Liu’s job.
As the breadwinner of the family, Liu looked for jobs elsewhere, but was turned down because of his age. “I’m not competitive on the market. More importantly, I don’t have technical skills, except from doing hard labor in the pit.”
The assistance is also dwindling. Last year, the government handed out 200 yuan per person a month for eight months and 33.5 kilograms of grain per head for three months, but all the financial and material support ended in January, says Liu. “Nowadays, around 15 percent of the people in the community live on what they had before,” his cousin says.
The price of commodities has climbed due to rising transport costs, and Liu and his wife, Chen Mingfang, have to rack their brains to make ends meet.
What worries the couple most is their 14-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter, who are studying at secondary school.
Changying, the daughter, will take the national college entrance examination this summer, meaning a lot of money will be needed if she is enrolled into university. This term alone, she paid 2,000-plus yuan for tuition fees and living expenses.
Her brother, Chenglin, pays 9 yuan a day for three meals in the school canteen as part of a boarder scheme.
Liu’s mother-in-law, who lives under the same roof, is covered by neither a pension nor the rural cooperative medical care. Liu is relieved that the past winter was mild compared with the previous year.
“Otherwise, she might have caught a severe cold,” he says.
In the end, Liu was forced to accept employment in a private mine hundreds of miles away in Yibin, southern Sichuan, where he was paid 80 yuan a day to work from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m..
The pay was satisfactory, but the toil and loneliness in a strange city were intolerable. The man of few words killed time by playing mahjong with his colleagues, and sometimes, small-time gambling.
Unlike many parts of Sichuan where the natural conditions are harsh, Mianzhu has fewer people moving to big cities like Beijing or Guangzhou for job opportunities.
“Before the quake, Mianzhu was blessed with favorable conditions, with no storms or landslides, and most of us preferred to stay in our hometown,” says Liu Daishu.
Adding to their sense of security was the multitude of industries sprawling across the city, such as the national key companies Dongfang Turbine, Lonmon Chemicals and Jiannanchun Distillery, which absorbed a large number of local workers.” We are used to the pace of ease here,” says Daishu.
Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Resources and Social Security of Mianzhu confirm that around 20,000 people are working outside Sichuan Province, accounting less than one tenth the total labor force.
Before the Spring Festival, Liu returned and worked at another small mine in the adjacent city of Shifang, which was set up by one of his fellow villagers.
CHENGDU, April 1 (Xinhua) — A public controversy over spending on a proposed earthquake museum in southwest China’s Sichuan Province has prompted officials to come forward and defend the plans.
The 2.3-billion-yuan (338 million-U.S.-dollar) plan reported by local media comprised costs of other projects in addition to the Beichuan County Earthquake Museum, near the epicenter of last year’s May 12 quake, said Lin Jizhong, deputy director of the county’s Culture and Tourism Bureau Wednesday.
The museum itself would only cost 135 million yuan (20 million U.S. dollars), said Lin.
The news of the plan provoked a public outcry on the Internet after local newspapers reported in late March.
Many people contended that a museum was necessary, but as the province was in dire need of money for reconstruction, investing such a huge amount in the museum was unwise.
Wu Changfu, head of the Shanghai-based project planning expert group which outlined the budget, said, “The money was not used solely for construction of the museum building. The environmental protection work and road construction will also be included in the plan.”
“The feasibility report of the museum is being drafted,” Wu said.
Lin said the planned museum was not just an exhibition building, but encompassed the remnants of the old county seat, and traces left by secondary disasters such as mud-rock flows and quake lakes.
The natural scenery of the Tangjiashan quake lake area and culture of the Qiang ethnic minority would also feature in the attraction.
The entire project covered 8 square kilometers, with the Beichuan Middle School at the center, Lin said.
More than 80,000 people were confirmed dead or missing after the quake.
Premier Wen Jiabao suggested when he was in Beichuan after the quake that a museum should be erected.
Lin said construction was scheduled to start later this year in fall went smoothly.
“We hope the museum can bring more revenue to local people,” he said. “The dead are dead, but we hope the living can live better lives.”
Sunday 8th March 2009
Approximately 20 Chengdu Sports Aid volunteers and the Jerry Snell circus took a bus to Luo Shui via PengZhou. About 50 kids were waiting for the group, and they got involved in sports coaching and activities, including skipping, basketball, badminton, soccer/football, and touch rugby.
There followed a fabulous performance from the Jerry Snell crew. David Fiset, the bespectacled clown, drew in the whole crowd with sensational stage craft, with suitcase-based antics, threatening to kiss the audience, balancing a mop, a chair and a bicycle on his chin. Pipat Suwapa was up next, mesmerising the crowd with his glass ball manipulation/juggling and comic moments, and Becky Hoops (Becky Priebe) followed up with dozens of hula hoops on the go simultaneously, massive hula hoops, and acrobatics verging on contortion. Her tantalisingly frilly pair of bloomers were a big hit with the clown, who joined in the act, jumping in and out of moving hula hoops, standing on Becky’s shoulders and on her front as she held a bridge, all this with hula hoops and juggling going on. David Bernbaum dazzled with his witty MCing, juggling, hula-hoop handling, magic, and handstands, and after some club-juggling and firestick juggling, the finale combined the talents of all 4 performers, overseen by Jerry Snell himself.
The crowd absolutely loved the show and screamed for more. The post-finale was the golden moment of the day, as a little girl helped the clown pick up his juggling clubs. As she handed him one, he had no choice but to drop one to make room for the proffered club. The helpful assistant would hand the ‘next’ one to the clown, who again had to make room by dropping another. After about 7 exchanges, the little girl got fed up, picked up a club, and marched it into the performers’ dressing room, with the contrite clown in tow, and the crowd applauding.
The day finished with a penalty shoot-out competition, with the winner presented with a Glasgow Rangers football kit by die-hard fan Andy McAuley.
The day was a great deal of fun, and was a chance for SQR to check out the sports surface they helped fund at the school. The sandy/soily surface is fine for all the sports played on this day, and Chengdu Sports Aid aims to make regular trips to provide sports coaching and activities.
Many thanks to all at the school for welcoming us and to all at SQR for organising the trip, and for EtonHouse for providing the bus.
HONG KONG — A vice governor of the Chinese province hardest hit by the earthquake last May said Sunday that many schools collapsed then because of the strength of the 7.9 magnitude quake, and not because of shoddy construction.
Wei Hong, one of the eight vice governors of Sichuan Province, also declined to release the number of schoolchildren who were killed, saying that the exact tally still had not been calculated almost 10 months later, news agencies reported from Beijing. Mr. Wei spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress there.
State news media have reported that the quake left more than 80,000 dead and thousands more missing. The most controversial aspect of the quake has been the damage to 14,000 classrooms, half of which collapsed entirely.
Heavy damage to schools, some of which fell down in neighborhoods where other structures remained standing, has prompted accusations from local residents that the schools suffered from what many Chinese have termed “tofu” construction.
Epicentre location as shown in NY Times
Local and provincial officials have responded angrily to criticisms of school construction practices, and particularly to suggestions from some parents that there might have been corruption involved in the construction process for schools. The local authorities have silenced many parents who lost children in the earthquake, through a combination of compensation payments and intimidation.
A mother whose 11-year-old daughter died in the earthquake said by telephone on Sunday that “of course it was tofu construction that led to the collapse of the school.”
The mother, who requested anonymity because of continued government efforts to discourage public discussion of the collapse of the schools, said that she believed that the government must have a tally of schoolchildren who died in the earthquake, since communities in her area were well aware of death tolls at their local schools.
Mr. Wei was promoted to vice governor on June 1, less than three weeks after the quake on May 12, part of a series of shifts in provincial leaders that followed the quake but that may have been scheduled to some extent before the natural disaster.
The Beijing authorities sent their own committee of experts to Sichuan Province after the earthquake to assess construction practices there.
The chairman of the committee, Ma Zongjin, said at a news conference in Beijing last September that because of a rush to build schools during China’s economic boom in recent years, more than 1,000 damaged schools had suffered from at least one of two shortcomings: they were built extremely close to the fault line and were destroyed with other structures near them, or they were poorly built.
But detailed results of that investigation have not been released.
Wei Hong, deputy governor of Sichuan, speaks at a press conference March 8, 2009. (www.china.org.cn)
Special Report: Reconstruction After Earthquake
BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) – The number of students killed in the devastating May 12 earthquake in southwestern China last year is still under calculation, an official said.
“We will publicize the result after we finish the calculation,”said Wei Hong, deputy governor of Sichuan, who is attending the annual session of the Chinese legislature.
The student toll is a question relating to the number of people killed in the quake, Wei said, adding that the calculation must be carried out according to relevant regulations enacted by relevant ministries and government departments.
“Therefore it is a very complicated process. We are still investigating into and checking the number of the dead and missing. It is not easy for us to tell how many students were exactly killed in the earthquake before the accurate number of al lthe victims is confirmed,” he said at a press conference.
Earlier reports said that thousands of students had been killed in the magnitude 8.0 quake and officials were believed to bear some responsibility in relation to shoddy construction of school buildings.
After the earthquake, the government had pledged greater efforts to investigate why many schools crumbled while nearby buildings stayed erect.
It is estimated that about 87,000 people died in the earthquake.
Wei said that the province will have restored 95 percent of the collapsed school buildings by the end of 2009. Half of the campuses are now under construction in the 39 most severely-hit counties.
The province has stepped up the re-building of residential houses for farmers and citizens. “We will ensure everybody to move into new houses by the end of this year,” he said.
He added that there have been no outbursts of epidemics nor famine in the quake region. “As no social unrest was reported, we did not take any special security measures,” he said
China’s political advisors have proposed to establish a national quake relief day to be remembered on May 12th every year to commemorate last year’s devastating earthquake in the country’s southwestern regions.
The setting of the special day would help the public “be alert to danger in times of peace”, said a proposal put forward by the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party (CPWDP), one of China’s eight non-Communist parties.
The proposal has been submitted to the forthcoming annual session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), scheduled to open here on Tuesday.
China is a country with frequent natural disasters including earthquakes, it said.
It suggested people to hold various activities to mourn the quake victims at 2:28 p.m. on May 12 every year, the moment when amagnitude-8.0 earthquake hit Wenchuan County in the southwestern Sichuan Province.
The quake, the most destructive natural disaster to hit China for decades, left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, millions homeless, and a huge loss of more than 845 billion yuan (about 124 billion U.S. dollars).
Venues with a high population densities, including schools, government buildings, shopping centres, and office buildings should also hold emergency evacuation drills in the context of earthquakes and other emergencies, the proposal said.
One week after the quake, China observed a nationwide three-minute silent tribute to the quake dead, the first of its kind for ordinary citizens. Such a privilege used to be reserved for state leaders.
The tribute was the highlight of a three-day official National Mourning Period, which also featured suspension of all entertainment activities, and with flags flown at half mast.
In terms of the intensity and scope of destruction, the May 12th quake is believed to have surpassed the 7.8-magnitude quake in 1976 in Tangshan city, northern Hebei Province, which claimed more than 240,000 lives.
On Tuesday 3rd March 2009, Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) signed an agreement with China’s quake-hit Sichuan province, which will see the SAR finance 10 reconstruction projects in Guangyuan city, Sichuan, according to a press release from the SAR government.
The 10 projects include the rebuilding of roads, bridges, river embankment, and sewage treatment works in Guangyuan city, for which the SAR government will allocate 687 million yuan (102 million U.S. dollars), according to the press release.
The agreement was signed in Sichuan’s capital Chengdu by Chui Sai On, the Macao SAR’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, and representatives of the Sichuan Provincial Government.
The 8.0-magnitude quake centered in Sichuan’s Wenchuan County, which took place on May 12 last year, left more than 69,000 people dead, 374,000 injured, 18,000 missing and millions homeless, according to official statistics.
The government of the Macao SAR has already signed a general agreement with the Sichuan provincial government, under which the SAR will finance the reconstruction projects in the quake-stricken province located in south western China. According to the agreement, Macao SAR will spend an amount of 5.5 billion patacas (688 million U.S. dollars) funding the rebuilding projects in some counties of Sichuan.
The Macao SAR government initiated the financing of seven reconstruction projects in Guanyuan last year, and, with the agreement to finance the above 10 projects signed, a total of 17 Macao-financed rebuilding projects in Guangyuan have been launched so far, according to the press release.
After completing the financial arrangements of the 17 projects, the SAR government said it would continue to assess another 19 rebuilding projects mainly of education and sports facilities.
According to a teleconference of Sichuan medical-sanitation institute on 3rd March 2009, there was a 6.3 billion RMB shortfall in funds for the reconstruction of medical and sanitation facilities. By 27th Feb, only 522 projects had been completed, which accounted for 12.65% of the initial plan. According to Chen Wenhua, vice-governor of Sichuan government, progress in the reconstruction of medical-sanitation facilities has been relatively slow, compared to other public facilities.
“With the current progress, it is rather difficult to complete all these reconstruction projects in only 10 months, and it will get harder and harder,” said Chen. By 27th February 2009, in the 1252 projects that had already received capital from central or provincial government, only 425 of them were under construction or already finished. 10 counties that were identified as “tremendously affected counties” had no projects ongoing.
So how did the lag happen when sufficient subsidies had already arrived? Chen Wenhua had concluded:
Firstly, some local government have not attached sufficient priorty to medical-sanitation projects. Responsibilities were not well defined. Secondly, other public facility projects were given priority in some counties. Last but not least, the imbalance of capital distributed between different counties has substantially hampered progress on reconstruction, which means the general “sufficient subsidies” was actually not enough for certain projects.
To further explain the last point, Chen emphasized that the lack of progress/funds was partially the result of the high construction standards that some local government prescribed, which were not accounted for when budgets were issued centrally.
Chen pointed out that it is vital to define the responsibilities of each level and department of the government in the face of all the demanding work and the tight schedule – all reconstruction work of medical-sanitation institutions must be in progress by the end of March 2009; reinforcement needs to be completed before July; and by the end of 2009, all the newly built town and township clinics must be in operation.
Wang Ming, a National People’s Congress member, recently revealed that he would file a proposal in the coming NPC and CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) meeting, on enhance high school students’ education on insurance.
“After the quake, many survivors only get support from the governments but not insurance companies for they hadn’t bought any.” said Wang. He deemed that if proper quantities of insurance education are provided, students will grow up with more solid ‘insurance awareness’, which is proscribed in the Insurance Law of People’s Republic of China:“ To gradually put the cultivation of awareness in education system.”
Besides this, Wang Ming suggests to open optional courses on first aid and disaster-relief in universities. “In Japan, even elementary schools have such courses, it is necessary for us to do this as well.”
The Department of Quality Supervision has released a series of policies and official advice on promoting Sichuan’s economical development, in which lightening burden of enterprises that are based in quake-hit regions and intensifying supervision on the quality of constructional materials were underlined.
It is revealed that the department will increase the random check on qualities of building material that are about to be used in quake-relief related construction. Specifically, important constructional material will receive selective examination once every month.
Additionally, to lighten the burden of enterprises, the department had decided to remit fees of the examination for some companies that are paralysed by the financial crisis and those are based in seriously quake-hit areas. As to the non-malicious and non-safety-related violations, they will be dealt with by training, instruction and regulation information, before prosecution.
[SQR note: building material quality has been a highly contentious issue in the aftermath of the major earthquake]
记者１８日从四川省质监局获悉，该局近日出台了一系列服务企业促进四川经济发展的政策意见，其中，为灾区企业减负、加大灾后重建建材抽查力度是重要内容。
Central Department of Education has released a series of preferential policy for this year’s college graduates. And students from quake-hit regions will also receive additional allowance (if needed) from colleges they study in when applying jobs such as travel expenses and commumication costs.
In line with a support program revealed by Beijing City government, job applications of Shifang students who have been studying in Beijing and intend to stay and work are privileged to be processed first. Moreover, a minimum yearly supply of employment position is promised to job applicants from Shifang.
Educational training, psychological counseling, technology support and constructional assistance are also planned to be provided to related realms in the next 3 years.
Individuals and enterprises that can’t repay loans because of the May 12th earthquake will get more time, the country’s central bank and banking regulator said Thursday.
Individuals who borrowed from Chinese banks before the quake will be given a grace period of another six months to repay the money. The new deadline is June 30 of this year, according to a joint statement by the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
Corporations will get a longer grace period of another 12 months. Repayment is now due at the end of 2009.
Previously, quake victims were told to repay borrowed money by the end of 2008.
The two agencies also urged banks not to push for loan repayment if debtors in the quake-hit regions fall behind in payments. They said lenders should not levy fines for defaults or add default notices to borrowers’ credit records during the extended grace period.
The May 12 earthquake left more than 87,000 people dead or missing. Millions more are homeless.
Hope Project to invest 400mln Yuan in Sichuan quake zones
Xinhua 2009-01-07 18:43:25
More than 410 million Yuan (about 60 million U.S. dollars) will be invested by the Hope Project in quake zones in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, according to the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF).
Some 254 primary schools in 33 counties will be built with the money, said Tu Meng, deputy general secretary of CYDF. A construction timeline had not been decided yet, Tu said.
The foundation will also provide computer rooms, libraries, movies, sports grounds, teacher training and scholarships.
The money will be used in eight quake affected areas in Sichuan, including Chengdu, Mianyang, Deyang and Aba Autonomous Prefecture of Tibetan and Qiang nationalities.
Donations helped raise the 410 million Yuan, said Tu.
Hope Project, started in 1989, is a Chinese public service project organized by CYDF and the Communist Youth League (CYL). Its goal is to help children in poverty-stricken areas to go to school.
A middle school damaged in the May 12 earthquake in Shifang City of Sichuan Province in southwest China began reconstruction on Sunday, with assistance from the Chinese Air Force.
Established in 1904, the Yinghua Town Middle School was leveled to ground in the deadly earthquake in Sichuan and some neighboring provinces, which left more than 80,000 deaths or missing.
The school is rebuilt on its original site in Yinghua Town, but will be given a new name of “Yinghua Bayi Middle School.” Aug. 1, or Bayi, is the founding day of the Chinese army.
Under the unified arrangement of the central authorities, the Air Force will help rebuild the whole school compound, which covers 17,764 square meters. Facilities include teaching buildings, a cultural hall, a dining hall, dormitories for teachers and students, a comprehensive gymnasium and a basketball playground.
The school was severely damaged in the earthquake, with all the teaching and office buildings collapsing and the students’ dormitory seriously cracking. The new buildings are designed to resist an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale.
So far, the Air Force has helped build a “Blue Sky Elementary School” and a “Blue Sky Old People’s House” in the earthquake areas of Sichuan. It plans to build four more schools and one kindergarten in the quake-hit areas.
The Chinese government will step up earthquake monitoring and forecasting measures this year, and improve emergency capabilities, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said Monday.
He told a conference of officials and experts sponsored by the State Council that the Chinese people achieved a great victory in dealing with last year’s May 12 earthquake under the staunch leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, as well as the direct leadership of the State Council’s general headquarters for earthquake relief.
Hui, deputy head of the general headquarters, urged all areas and departments to vigorously support the rehabilitation work in the quake zone.
He also called for the modernization of seismological monitoring network and efforts nationwide to create greater public awareness of earthquake risks.
China announced on Tuesday an aid package totaling 9 billion Yuan (1.32 billion U.S. dollars) for the country’s needy people two weeks ahead of its traditional Lunar New Year.
About 74 million Chinese receiving the minimum living allowances or the “five guarantees” (namely food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses provided by local governments to those without relatives or employment), would receive a one-off payment of 100 Yuan if they live in the countryside and 150 Yuan if they live in the cities.
The rural allowance was less than that in urban areas because living costs there were lower.
The payment would be made from the central budget before the Chinese Lunar New Year, one of the most important occasions for family reunion in the country. This year’s Lunar New Year falls on Jan. 26.
By Tuesday, the southwestern province of Sichuan, jolted by the magnitude-8 earthquake in May, allocated 394 million Yuan for clothing and shelter to help the quake-affected people get through the harsh winter. This relief comes in addition to the nationwide aid package.
Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, even handed out 100-yuan-worth shopping coupons to the needy citizens.
The neighboring province of Shaanxi, also jolted during the May earthquake, donated about 850,000 quilts and 110,000 pieces of clothing to its quake-affected people.
The province also granted rural and urban citizens living on the minimum living allowances an extra payment of their monthly minimum living allowances. Funds to cover heating expenses were also given out to those who lived on the minimum living allowances.
“The Chinese government attaches great concern to the livelihood of the disadvantaged population, especially in times of a global financial crisis,” Jiang Li, Vice Minister of the Civil Affairs said.
Local authorities must make sure all needy citizens qualifying for the aid package receive the payment in time, “so that they could enjoy a happy Lunar New Year,” he said.
The average annual net income for rural workers in China is 4,140 Yuan in 2007, against 24,932 Yuan in cities.
At present, about 62 million Chinese receive monthly minimum living allowances from the local governments, while 5.3 million people receive the “five guarantees.”
The average monthly allowance in 2007 was 182.4 Yuan in urban districts per person and 70 Yuan in rural areas. China had increased the monthly minimum living allowance by 15 Yuan in urban districts per person and by 10 Yuan for rural residents at the beginning of 2008.
Japan will donate ambulances and fund eight projects in Chinese areas affected by the May 12 earthquake.
The assistance is valued at 1.35 million U.S. dollars.
According to an agreement signed Wednesday between China’s Commerce Ministry and the Japanese Embassy in China, Japan will help construct one medical clinic as well as a disease control and prevention building.
In Da’nangou and Xinzhai villages in the Gansu Province, Japan will fund the construction of two primary schools. The timetable for the project was not released.
The money will also be used to purchase supplies of drinking water, medical equipment and 20 ambulances which will be used in the Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces.
Japan shares the pain of the Chinese in the Wenchuan earthquake and will provide further help for quake reconstruction, said Yuji Miyamoto, Japanese Ambassador to China.
China’s vice minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun expressed thanks to the Japanese government for its help.
The Wenchuan 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing and millions homeless. The cost was put at more than 845 billion Yuan.
