Left: A man by the name of Ma Yuanjiang was rescued alive by the Shanghai rescue team 179 hours after the quake. Doctors were surprised that this man could survive for so long without a single drop of water. By the next morning Ma was already able to take light food and converse with nurses. He told nurses that he could survive for so long only because he found a companion in another woman......

Scuffles between aid volunteers and survivors of earthquake broke out in Mianyang, as victims struggled to find water and food supplies. [May 19] Teachers set up makeshift classrooms in Xiang'e, an area of China hit hard by the earthquake, in order to keep the children safe. Massive graves after the earthquake in JingXiu in China [May 17] Fears of new quake cause panic in Chengdu. Thousands of people flee the capital of Sichuan.......

Shanghaiist has been nonstop busy for the past several days fielding emails and returning calls from companies interested in donating to the raffle at ‘The Great Shanghaiist Benefit for Earthquake Victims at Sasha's’. It’s a great reason to feel overworked. How the raffle works: Everyone who attends the BBQ for dinner will get one chance to win a prize. If you want to donate additional money to our designated charity, the Foundation for Poverty Alleviation,......

Yet more notes from the field forwarded to us by our friends from Chengdoo: LATEST>>> From Sina.com: "BEIJING, May 19 -- Sichuan Earthquake Administration announced tonight that aftershocks between 6-7 on the Richter scale are likely to hit Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province between May 19-20, according to China News Service." http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0519/160448.html This message circulated around the SMS and phone network as soon as it was reported around 10 p.m. As of 3:05 a.m., it......

Via a new blog called Speak4China which comes with the hearty recommendation of the China Law Blog: On the day the Wenchuan earthquake struck, these students from a Sichuan high school were evacuated from their building and to while away their time, they took this video of themselves pretending to do an earthquake interview on live television. One girl said she didn't care about her parents and only for the pop duo Twins, another said......

Scenes captured across Chengdu during the three minutes of silence, when all of China ground to a halt yesterday. For many Chengdu-ites, this earthquake has hit very, very close to home: After the three minutes of silence at Tiananmen Square, the crowds broke out into unanimous chants of "Long live China!" (中国万岁！) and “Go Wenchuan Go!" (汶川加油！). Similar scenes also broke out in gatherings in other major cities, and some a lot more emotional than......

China-based Twitterers too observed a 3 minute silence on the 3 minute silence that took place from 14:28 to 14:31 just now to mark the first of three days of national mourning, and this is what they said immediately afterwards. inwalkedbud There was just a moment of 'silence' for the earthquake. Cars stopped and blasted their horns for three minutes, whilst people watched. xiaomiao Is that the Chinese interpretation of "silence"? Still, whatever it was,......

Several tales of motherly love have emerged and are being repeated throughout several Chinese stations and media:One mother was found buried dead while still suckling her three month old.One picture of a female police officer Jiang Xiaojuan has been making its rounds on the internet. A new mother herself, Jiang has been breastfeeding eight babies orphaned by the quake.A third baby was found by rescue workers alive in the arms of his mother who......

Forwarded to us from our new friends at Chengdu's English-language magazine Chengdoo (Thanks Joe and Jane!). We are posting these up because the needs are real and time-sensitive. Many have died, but the living need help too. Now. Many areas of help are needed right now, so feel free to read through each of these and make a decision for yourself which cause is closest to your heart and which organisation you'd like to support.......

ESWN draws our attention the heart-rending story of Chen Jian. Be very sure you watch all the way to the fourth video, or don't watch at all if you don't intend to cry today: Part 1: It's May 15 at the start of this video, and 26 year old Chen Jian has already been trapped under the rubble for 73 hours. While waiting for the lifting equipment to arrive, he chatted with the reporter Zhang......

Scene of devastation at Juyuan Middle School (聚源中学) in Dujiangyan (都江堰) The government has announced the start of a massive probe to find out why close to 7,000 schools classrooms have been destroyed and promised that anyone found responsible for shoddy construction will be severely punished. A great many of the casualties we've seen so far are students and teachers who were still in class when the quake struck. From AFP:"If quality problems do......

Al-Jazeera: The scenes of destruction and devastation, and the smell of death. Melissa Chan wins our thumbs-up once again with this report: AP catches up with the group of British tourists that have been rescued from the Wolong Panda Preserve: AP: "The focus of rescue workers is starting to shift to a recovery mission. The death toll is already approaching 15,000 and that number is expected to skyrocket. (May 15)" France24:"While the earthquake's death toll......

If, like us, you've never been in an earthquake before, then this amateur video we found on NoCommentTV that was taken during the recent earthquake (exact location unknown) may give you some idea.......

UPDATE, 18:09 The first Japanese relief workers are expected to leave tonight. A group of 60 earthquake specialists together with sniffer dogs will head to Sichuan over the next few days. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has appealed for earth-moving equipment to aid rescue efforts in the region. Many relief workers are currently sifting through the rubble with their hands according to ABC News. The latest official death toll stands at 19,500 but is expected to......

As we told you earlier, there had been very real fears that the Zipingba Dam, 6 miles upstream from the devastated city of Dujiangyan, was displaying "extremely dangerous" cracks. The People's Daily is now reporting that the dam is "structurally stable and safe" following a full inspection. "The conclusion was reached after a panel of experts, led by Jiao Yong, Vice Minister of Water Resources, rushed to the site and made a thorough inspection of......

Though reports are varied, it now appears that the current death from the Wenchuan earthquakes is somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 (latter figure from the Time China Blog, although most of the media is still reporting the official count at a more conservative 15,000. It's still to0 early to say just how high that figure will climb once everything is said and done, but an earlier Time's estimate put that number at around 100,000 (their......

By Julien Bertrand and Derek Sandhaus As mentioned earlier, not a day had passed since the earthquake hit and we were already seeing cynical reactions from media outlets like The First Post blaming the devastation on China's rush to modernization, but the vast majority of the coverage has been positive and supportive of the country in its time of crisis. Just yesterday, the New York Times wrote a piece on the overwhelmingly positive reaction to......

The environment NY Times: Disaster Set Off by Colliding Land Masses NPR: Geology, Engineering Contribute to Quake Damage Probe International: China's deadly quake: Is the Three Gorges Dam to blame? Treehugger: China earthquake threatens nearby dams, environment Rescue efforts The Guardian: Ill-equipped soldiers face losing battle in huge rescue operation Press TV: China rejects foreign rescue teams NY Times: Quake toll rises; China struggles to reach victims Xinhua: Wen: 90 more copters for quake......

Film star Jackie Chan has donated RMB10million to help those in need following the earthquake in Sichuan province. Other celebrities have also dipped into their wallets. From CriEnglish: "Jackie Chan also sent his consolation to the quake victims and encouraged them to hold on as "people all over the country are with you," the star said. The One Foundation initiated by kungfu star Jet Li has made a donation of one million yuan and......

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Some of you are starting to get in touch with us to send us your list of missing loved ones or friends. We were going to publish this list later, but decided we couldn't wait when we heard this bit of good news: John Bergen of Sichuan Tech and Business College in Dujiangyan has been found, and we've since contacted his friend Peter to let him know. And here's the list of missing foreigners as......

Right after the earthquake struck, Olympic officials maintained that the torch relay would go on as planned as "the epicenter is not along the route of the torch relay". In fact, one day after the earthquake, China Daily was still offering this really happy and harmonious image of the torch relay. That, unfortunately, did not go down well with people, and after a huge outcry on the Internet which saw Olympic organisers roundly lambasted for......

BBC reports that the group of British tourists on their way to Wolong when the quake struck has turned up unharmed. So far, the official word from Xinhua is that there have been zero foreigner deaths (Note: report is from Tuesday morning), but a more recent report from AFP cites Xinhua as saying two Chinese-Americans and one Thai tourist in Sichuan have yet to be located. This morning, we received an email from Shanghaiist reader......

Melissa Chan of Al-Jazeera is one of several foreign correspondents currently in Sichuan Province and files this story from Juyuan Middle School at Dujiangyan (都江堰) where Premier Wen Jiabao was earlier.......

Danwei points us to this CCTV segment of Prime Minister Wen Jiaobao (温家宝) speaking to quake victims at various ground zero zones, including the Juyuan Middle School at Dujiangyan that we told you about in Update 49 here. We are reminded of this fantastic loudhailer blogpost by Richard Spencer of the Daily Telegraph, "Good officials are important in China". Well worth a read.......

As reported earlier, the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake was not only near the city of Wenchuan, but it was also very close to the Wolong Panda Reserve. Xinhua informed us that some pandas at other facilities were safe, but the status of the Wolong pandas was still known. Luckily we have good news. We received this email from Karen Rose, Chairman of Pandas International:We have a report from the Bifengxia Panda Base that......

Scene of devastation at a school in Dujiangyan (都江堰) which collapsed from the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China * Over 10,000 feared dead in biggest earthquake in China for 30 years * Earthquake measured at 7.9 on the Richter scale, epicentre(s) in western Sichuan * Second earthquake/aftershocks measuring 5.0 and 6.1 magnitude reported at epicentre today * Relief efforts hampered by terrain and poor weather * 15 British tourists among the missing. The group......

By Sue Anne Tay For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan. They have also published an emergency relief hotline, along with bank account information to receive donations to assist their cause: Account name: Red Cross Society of China 开户单位：中国红十字会总会 For......

By Kenneth Tan, Dan Washburn, Pete Chorba, and Derek Sandhaus digg_url = 'http://digg.com/world_news/Huge_earthquake_jolts_Sichuan_tremors_felt_across_China'; A strong earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has rocked Wenchuan in Sichuan province, some 92km northwest of Chengdu. The earthquake took place at 14:48 Beijing Time and tremors were felt (by our MSN friends) as far as Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing. This picture on the right shows the aftermath of the IT department of the Sichuan Bureau of the Xinhua......