Dang was able to approach the girl, hold her hand and reassure her that she was safe. "If you want to cry, just do it and you'll feel better."

When the girl became quiet again, Dang related her own experience.

She was six months old when rescuers pulled her from the rubble of her home. Her parents were dead and no one knew her name, so she was institutionalized at a special school for more than 100 quake orphans. There she was named Dang Yuxin, meaning "the Communist Party gave her a new life."

Yang listened quietly to her account, at the end of which she began to recall the terrible scenes she witnessed after the quake:

her dead classmates, textbooks, satchels, pieces of clothing and blood everywhere. She talked until she was exhausted, and finally fell asleep.

When she woke up again she was not scared of the doctors and nurses.

"Just let them face the truth. Don't tell lies such as 'your parents are still alive but have gone away'," Dang told a team of volunteers in Mianyang, where Yang and many other survivors are being treated.

A team of 17 counselors from Tangshan has arrived in Mianzhu and Beichuan, two of the hardest-hit areas in last Monday's quake. With their survival skills acquired from the 1976 quake, they hope to provide psychotherapy to victims in Sichuan.

"Every time, I tried hard to fight back tears," said Dang, "but I have to be strong and tell them to be strong, too."

Caring for quake orphans

Most of the quake orphans from the 1970s believe it's better for the orphans to be institutionalized than to be adopted.

Zhou Jie, 39, still cannot shrug off her unhappy life with her aunt and uncle in the south. They had three children themselves. "In fact, they were very nice to me. But somehow I always felt like an outsider."

When she finished high school, Zhou found a job at a state company in Beijing.

Su Youpo, a post-quake reconstruction specialist, has made friends with many Tangshan quake orphans during decades of research work. "Most of them believe a special school is the best place for orphans," he said.

"Children who live in foster families always feel uneasy: they think they owe a lot to their foster parents. When institutionalized, however, all the children are equal and don't have to feel indebted."

Many Chinese families have expressed willingness to adopt quake orphans from Sichuan Province, though there's still no confirmed list of orphans.

The civil affairs department in Sichuan estimated about 70 children had lost both parents in the quake. The final number won't be very big because many parents in the populous province are among the country's millions of migrant workers, who have jobs in faraway cities.

"Still, it is advisable to set up a special institution for these children, better in their home province, so the children will feel closer to their dead parents," said Dong Yuguo, who was president of the government school for quake orphans in Shijiazhuang.

At least 500 people in Tangshan, some of whom grew up as orphans, have offered financial aid for the children, and voluntary services if such an institution is established.

As of Wednesday, the quake was known to have killed 41,353 people, injured 274,683 and left 32,666 missing.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)