Xinhua reporters arrive at quake epicenter in SW China

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Four Xinhua reporters on Wednesday arrived in Wenchuan, epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake in southwestern Sichuan Province.

Xu Zhuangzhi was helicoptered in with a group of People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers and arrived in the county seat of Wenchuan at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday.

"The quake damage in the county was not as serious as we expected. Most of the buildings here did not collapse. But people here are badly in need of drugs and food," said Xu.

The soldiers, from the Chengdu Military Area Command, have set up a communication center and had connected Wenchuan with the disaster-relief headquarters in Dujiangyan, Xu said.

Weather permitting, a team of 27 medical workers from the same military command will soon arrive, by helicopter, in Wenchuan to supplement the telecommunications team with whom Xu flew in.

"I learnt about the trip to Wenchuan at 8:00 a.m., but it was unknown at that time whether the helicopter would be able to land in Wenchuan," he said.

Xu rushed to the airport, just catching the helicopter, but his photographer was not so lucky. "Fortunately, I got on board in time. But our photographer missed the flight, which means I shall work as a photographer as well," he said.

The helicopter took off at 9:05 a.m.

When the helicopter's technician told Xu they were above Wenchuan at 9:55, Xu could see that most of the buildings in the city seemed intact. They continued to fly to Maoxian County and tried to land.

Having seen two helicopters already land, their helicopter flew back to Wenchuan and landed on a hill near the county seat at 10:22 a.m.

Soldiers immediately began unloading supplies. Dozens of villagers helped the soldiers move supplies to their village.

"More than a dozen people died in our village and we are badly in need of food and water," one villager told Xu. "We've been looking forward to some aid, and you finally come."

At 10:40, a second helicopter landed.

"It's a pity the supplies we could bring are limited," said head of the helicopter brigade Tang Chun. They had tried but failed to fly to Wenchuan for the past two days, because of bad weather.

"We should try to do more rescue work today," Tang said, adding that they would go to Yingxiu Town to carry some injured people back to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.