By Chris Buckley
BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - China began three days ofnational mourning on Monday for more than 30,000 victims of anearthquake that struck a week ago.
Public entertainment will be suspended, flags kept athalf-mast and a three-minute silence observed to mark exactly aweek since the quake, the government said.
The national flag in Tiananmen Square in central Beijingflew at half mast after a ceremony at dawn. The Olympic torchrelay, currently on its domestic leg ahead of the August 8opening in Beijing, will likewise be suspended for three days.
"I have come today with a heavy heart," said Liu Xianzeng,watching the ceremony in Tiananmen Square. "I feel for thevictims of the earthquake and soldiers who are helping there."
Around the country air raid sirens and car, train and shiphorns will sound to "wail in grief" at 2:28 pm (7:28 a.m.British time), the time the quake hit a week ago, the officialXinhua news agency said.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and the futuresexchanges in Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Dalian will also halttrading for three minutes from 2:28 p.m.
Presenters on state television wore black, and state-runnewspapers ran black mastheads and no colour pictures.
In southwestern Sichuan province's Beichuan, hard hit bythe earthquake, relatives continued to travel back into thedisaster zone to look for family members and see the damage forthemselves.
"It's a good idea but maybe it's a bit early,' said ZhouWanli of the national state of mourning, sitting in the back ofa truck heading into Beichuan.
"All we can care about for the time being is finding ourrelatives. We don't want to memorialise them if we don't evenknow if they're alive or dead," he said.
AFTERSHOCK
On the eve of the official mourning period, a fresh tremorin southwestern China killed three people, injured 1,000 andsent thousands fleeing their homes into the streets.
The tremor, one of the strongest aftershocks since the May12 earthquake, hit Jiangyou city in Sichuan, Xinhua said.
It was 5.7 in magnitude and brought down a large number ofhouses, damaged 377 km of roads and six bridges, rescueauthorities said late on Sunday.
The official death toll stands at nearly 32,500 from theoriginal quake of 7.9 magnitude that rattled Sichuan province.
Some 220,000 people are reported injured and a further9,500 are thought to be still buried under the rubble inSichuan. Most are feared dead.
Officials have tried to keep people from the area becauseof aftershocks and a build-up of water in blocked rivers.
Xinhua said the most dangerous mass of water was only about3 km upstream from Beichuan town where rescue workers saved aman on Sunday from under the remains of a hospital.
China says it expects the final death toll to exceed50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes.
Late on Sunday, a woman was also pulled out of the rubblein Yingxiu after a 56-hour rescue operation during which herlegs were amputated, Xinhua reported. A man was earlier foundalive in a collapsed office building in Maoxian county, itsaid.
Offers of help have flooded in and rescue teams withsniffer dogs and specialised equipment from Japan, Russia,Taiwan, South Korea, the United States and Singapore areassisting. Donations from home and abroad have topped 6 billionyuan (438 million pounds).
Statistics from past earthquakes show some victims havesurvived up to nearly a fortnight under rubble.
"I don't think they are going to find anymore people alivenow, but they have to keep trying otherwise the ordinary peoplewould never accept them giving up," said Zheng Xiaokang, as heprepared to go into Beichuan.
(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)