Chinese continue to show support to Haiti quake victims

CHENGDU, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Luyou closely followed the news of Haiti earthquake on TV these days and he shed tears every time when he watched reports about death and loss.

Zhang was orphaned when he was nine in the 7.8-magnitude Tangshan earthquake in north China's Hebei Province in 1976. The quake killed more than 240,000 people and injured nearly 165,000 people.

"The quake scenes are just heartbreaking to me," Zhang said. "If I could go to Haiti to help, I'd definitely go."

Zhang spoke out shared wishes of many Chinese who wanted to do something to support the people in Haiti.

On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people across China mourned the dead and prayed for quake-victims in Haiti, as the bodies of eight Chinese peacekeeping police officers who were killed in Haiti earthquake arrived home.

On May 12, 2008, a 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck southwest China's Sichuan Province, leaving about 87,000 people dead or missing. Since then, the quake-hit areas have received unprecedented support from around the world.

Now people in Sichuan Province act swiftly to support quake-hit Haiti through donation. As of Monday afternoon, the Sichuan Provincial Red Cross Society had received a total of 250,000 yuan (36,600 U.S. dollars) in donation.

In a letter to the Ministry of Health, medical workers with People's Hospital of Sichuan, which treated many people injured in the May 12 quake, expressed their strong wish to work as volunteers in Haiti.

"Friends in Haiti, please be strong. We have experienced the same thing, if we can make it you can too," a 6th-grade pupil at Xiang'e Elementry School of Dujiangyan City, Sichuan, said during a praying ceremony.

School head Xu Hong said, "We know exactly how people in Haiti feel now, as we have had the similar disaster in 2008. We organize praying and donation activities to not only offer help, but also teach students to learn to be thankful."