Report: U.N. chief arrives in quake zone
BEIJING, China (CNN) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in China Saturday to observe earthquake relief efforts, China’s state-run news agency reported.
Ban arrived in Chengdu, capital of quake-hit Sichuan province, Xinhua reported. He was due to travel later Saturday to areas closer to the epicenter of the May 12 quake.
On Friday China’s government appealed for more than 2 million tents to shelter the estimated 5 million people made homeless by the huge earthquake as the death toll continued to rise.
More than 55,740 people are known to have died in the 7.9-magnitude quake, centered in Sichuan province, with another 24,960 missing and 292,481 injured, authorities said.
As of midday Friday, domestic and international donations to China’s earthquake zone had reached $3.6 billion, or 24.6 billion yuan, according to State Council officials.
So far, $273 million has been forwarded to the earthquake-affected areas, the office said.
In the midst of the devastation caused by last week’s quake, China’s central government announced that it will allocate $10 billion to the country’s reconstruction fund, according to state media. iReport: Send photos, videos of relief effort
About 400,000 tents have been sent to quake-hit areas, but many more are needed, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The central government has said it needs about 3 million tents to provide shelter for everyone who needs one.
President Hu Jintao urged manufacturers to produce tents as quickly as possible on a visit to factories in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province on Thursday, state-media reported.
I just came back from Sichuan, and tents are extremely needed there, he said. Every tent you produce can help several townsmen of yours.
We still face the arduous task of rescue and relief, and we especially need lots of tents to accommodate homeless people, Hu said, according to Xinhua. To produce more tents will be the greatest care shown to survivors and the greatest contribution to the rescue and relief.
Premier Wen Jiabao said government spending will be cut by 5 percent this year to pay for rebuilding, Xinhua reported. See how how a police officer is praised for breast-feeding surviving babies
China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development called on local authorities to build 1 million temporary homes by early August to accommodate many of those left homeless, according to Xinhua.
China’s response has been praised by a top United Nations official, who said the government’s willingness to seek international help highlighted the magnitude of the crisis. Watch how China’s image is getting a boost
Earthquake relief efforts have prompted Chinese officials to postpone the penultimate leg of the Olympic torch relay to Beijing, organizers said.
The two-day relay through Sichuan province, still reeling from the May 12 quake, will start August 3 — less than a week before the torch enters the opening ceremony in Beijing, according to a statement from the city’s Olympic organizing committee. The relay had been scheduled for June 15.
Thursday ended an official three-day mourning period, which had temporarily halted the Olympic torch relay. Watch the torch get back on the road
ITN’s John Sparks reported from China that the mourning period had appeared to unofficially mark the end of the search and rescue phase of the operations.
Medical staff are now seeking to identify the bodies being found and reduce the risk of disease spreading from the rotting corpses, he said.
However, massive problems remain trying to cope with the homeless, many of whom are concentrated in Sichuan’s mountainous regions.
Meanwhile on Friday, astonishing images were released showing the moment when a post-wedding photocall was interrupted by the quake. See images showing the moment the quake struck
And a newspaper reported that another survivor lived through a far worse disaster more than 30 years ago.
