The first train carrying the injured from Sichuan arrived here yesterday afternoon.
The Ministry of Railways suspended all passenger trains between Sichuan and Chongqing to make way for 12 special services.
The most heart-rending scene on the train was when 5-year-old Huang Danni was reunited with her family.
When Danni, who had been buried under rubble for more than 20 hours, kept crying for her parents, nurses were overjoyed to find her mother's name on their patient list.
The little girl was beside herself when they were reunited and her mother quickly forgot the intense pain caused by several fractures.
When they arrived at Chongqing No 3 People's Hospital, staff arranged for the child and her mother to stay in the same ward.
The 209 badly wounded victims were sent to 10 local hospitals, Vice-minister of Health Wang Guoqiang said.
More than 200 ambulances were waiting for them at Chongqing's north railway station.
"In a bid to ease the pressure on medical resources in Sichuan and make sure the injured receive good treatment, we decided to transfer those seriously wounded to neighboring regions," Wang said.
Hospitals in Chongqing were ordered to make 5,000 beds available, while Shaanxi, Yunnan and Guizhou were each expected to find 1,000 beds.
As of yesterday, 1,392 quake victims had been transferred to Chongqing, the local health bureau said.
Many of the hospitals' existing patients with minor injuries, voluntarily vacated their beds to make room for those more seriously hurt.
"Most of the patients who arrived today are suffering fractures, so we readied a lot of specialist doctors and nurses," Liu Yi, Party secretary of No 3 People's Hospital in Chongqing, said.
Special wards filled with toys have also been set up for traumatized children, Xie Xiaojun, vice-mayor of Chongqing, said.
Huang Jinying, a 56-year-old woman from Beichuan county who was rescued from the rubble 72 hours after the quake, was one of those who arrived yesterday in Chongqing.
Despite having had her arm amputated, she told China Daily that she never lost hope and was deeply moved by the actions of the relief troops, doctors and all others who saved her life.
(China Daily May 20, 2008)