The first quake-relief supplies from Kyrgyzstan arrived in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region by train on Sunday, for delivery to the neighboring earthquake-hit Gansu Province.
The 137 tons of supplies, valued at about 207,000 U.S. dollars, mainly includes tents, building materials and drinking water treatment equipment, the local entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities said.
The supplies will be transported to the southern areas of Gansu, which were affected by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake centered in Wenchuan County of neighboring Sichuan Province on May 12.
The quake had left 60,560 people dead nationwide as of Saturday noon, 352,290 injured and 26,221 missing, as well as millions homeless. In Sichuan alone, 60,057 people are known to have perished in the disaster and in Gansu, 364 have been confirmed dead.
Sichuan has recorded about 8,000 aftershocks, with the strongest measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale.
Domestic and foreign donations have reached 26.1 billion yuan (3.7 billion U.S. dollars).
In terms of the intensity and scope of destruction, the May 12 quake is believed to have surpassed the 7.8-magnitude quake in 1976 in Tangshan, northern Hebei Province, which claimed more than 240,000 lives.
(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2008)