A total of seven Xinhua reporters on Wednesday arrived in the epicenter area of the 7.8-magnitude quake in southwestern Sichuan Province, traveling by air, land and water with Chinese troops.
Three reporters Hou Dawei, Xie Jiao and Xu Bo arrived at 11:50 a.m. by boat and on foot in Yingxiu Town, one of the most badly damaged areas in Wenchuan, 100 km away from the provincial capital of Chengdu. They saw that 200 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) were already there rescuing injured people.
"Before it gets dark, we can transport 400 soldiers here," said PLA officer Zhi Liusuo, who was in charge of transportation.
"We send our troops into the town and carry the injured people back to Dujiangyan," he said.
Reporters Li Xuanliang and Huang Shubo hiked 50 kilometers with PLA soldiers to Yingxiu on Wednesday afternoon.
On their way, they met a lot of people who fled Yingxiu, which had water and power cut off for more than two days. Most of the survivors were heading to Zipingbu in Dujiangyan City, which is about 20 kilometers away. Only a few remained in the town.
Many people carried their injured family members and relatives with stretchers or slide bars, the local type of simplified rickshaw. Some of the injured were apparently dying.
A woman carried a dead infant wrapped in white clothes as if the baby was alive and hiked forward with her husband.