China mourns earthquake victims

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - China began three days ofnational mourning on Monday for more than 30,000 victims of anearthquake that struck a week ago, but the search for survivorswent on as families refused to give up hope for their lovedones.

Public entertainment was suspended, flags were put athalf-mast and a three-minute silence will be observed to markexactly a week 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, was also 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 p.m. (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.

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.

SURVIVORS RESCUED

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, but some are still being pulledout alive.

Rescuers saved at least two women on Monday morning in ahouse near a coal mine, Xinhua said.

In Beichuan, others carried on the search themselves.

Farmer Wang Hongchen and his wife Chen Guangfen scrambledover hundreds of metres of rubble to look for their son, whoworked as a mobile phone repair man in Beichuan.

"I think there's still hope. He worked on the first floor,so if he was lucky there would have been space for him tosurvive," Wang said, in between shouting out his son's nameover the ruins.

"There's nothing I want more than to find him alive," addedChen. "Other people who know their relatives have died can callthis a memorial day, or a funeral, but not me yet."

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.

In Jiangyou alone, a two-hour drive northeast of provincialcapital Chengdu, an estimated 120,000 people must live in tentsfor the next half year, according to government websitewww.china.com.cn.

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 (440 million pounds).

And a televised gala on Sunday night featuring Chinesesingers and actors raised more than 1.5 billion yuan in aid,Xinhua said.

A Beijing hotline to adopt quake orphans has received over2,000 phone calls in just two days from people interested inadopting orphans, it added.

Statistics from past earthquakes show some victims havesurvived up to nearly a fortnight under rubble.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by John Chalmers)