Public benevolence snowballed as the tragedy unfolded. By Monday noon, donations from home and abroad had reached 30.876 billion yuan, of which 9.05 billion yuan had been forwarded to the affected areas.

Such generous donations following a disaster are unprecedented in China in terms of the total figure and the broad participation of the public.

China's government management and technological capacities had been greatly improved along with the rapid economic development, which were also key factors behind the efficient rescue and relief, Wang told Xinhua.

The People's Liberation Army troops and armed police were sent for rescue work shortly after the quake. Premier Wen rushed to the quake zone within hours of the quake.

Qu Guosheng, chief engineer of the China seismological emergency center, said remote reconnaissance aircraft had provided reliable data for the best rescue routes after transportation and communications at the epicenter were cut.

He said life detectors, including thermal infrared equipment that could be used at night, rescue dogs, air cushions that could lift ten-ton objects, and hydraulic pressure clamps that could easily break reinforcing steel bars were also employed in the rescue.

These advanced technologies had saved precious time in the rescue effort, he added.

Ten days after the quake, more than 30,000 people had been relocated, and more than 6,000 were pulled alive from the rubble.

The Canadian-based Globe and Mail newspaper on May 20 reported, "Within hours of the quake, China was able to mobilise its vast human resources and target them at a massive disaster in a remote and forbidding region... an impressive display of China's economic prowess."

The government set its priority for economic development in 1978, and the policy was carried out in the following 30 years to make it possible to build up the national strength.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 24.66 trillion yuan last year, 67 times that of 1978. Correspondingly, its per capita GDP rose from 381 yuan to 18,665 yuan ,representing a 48-fold jump.

"The priority for economic development should not be changed," President Hu Jintao reiterated in a keynote speech delivered at the latest national congress of the Communist Party of China in October last year.

China is back on its path of economic endeavor, after days of all-out efforts to rescue survivors and three days of national mourning.

On the evening of May 21, when the mourning period was about to end, Premier Wen said at a meeting of the State Council, the Cabinet, that the country would attach equal importance to quake relief and reconstruction and to economic development.

As the rescue work draws to an end, China is taking on the toughest reconstruction task since 1976.

"But we have resolution, confidence in and are capable of overcoming all difficulties to succeed in both missions," the State Council agreed.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2008)