Sat, January 16, 2010
BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A Boeing-747 jumbo jet carrying 90 tonnes of Chinese government's emergency humanitarian relief materials took off from Beijing Capital International Airport to quake-hit Haiti at 12:22 p.m. on Saturday.
The 13 million yuan (1.9 million U.S. dollars) quake-relief materials, including tents, stretchers, food, medicines, clothing and water purification equipment, is China's first batch of relief material to the Caribbean country.
The aid is part of a relief package worth 30 million yuan (4.41 million U.S. dollars) announced by the Chinese government Friday.
The flight will take 19 hours before arriving in Haiti via the American city of Anchorage, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
The preparations of the quake-relief supplies were completed within 24 hours after China's decision to provide the relief material to Haiti, the MOC said.
The Chinese government has always been highly concerned about any natural disasters and large-scale health emergencies happening in the international community and will do everything within its capacity to help, said Yu Yingfu, an official with the MOC Department of Aid to Foreign Countries.
A Chinese emergency rescue team has arrived in Haiti, which was rocked by a 7.3-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday.
Yu added that the Chinese government and people feel the same as Haiti counterparts feel about the great losses caused by the massive quake. "China will continue to pay close attention to the quake-hit country and provide necessary humanitarian aid."
