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(Xinhua/chinadaily.com.cn) #M$[C d I$  
Updated: 2008-05-12 15:39 &dh%sFy  
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BEIJING -- A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County of southwest China's Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. Monday, the State Seismological Bureau said. .X\p;~H 5  
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The epicenter of the quake was located 31.0 degrees north latitude and 103.4 degrees east longitude, the bureau said. PUV)w\!&is  
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President Hu Jintao instructed to do every effort possible to rescue and treat the injured, and Premier Wen Jiabao is on the way to Sichuan to direct the rescue efforts, according to a Xinhua report. Ve*NM|jg  
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It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage from the tremor. 0vuL(W
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"We felt continuous shaking for about two or three minutes. All the people in our office are rushing downstairs. We're still feeling slight tremblings," said an office worker in Chengdu. 3('=+d[}Vw  
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With a population of 111,800, Wenchuan lies in southeast part of the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, 146 km to the northwest of Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan. 3XF.$=@  
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Wenchuan is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base of the endangered giant pandas. |I-;CoAg  
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In Beijing's financial district, many workers poured from their buildings but there were no visible signs of damage. The subway system was unaffected. Gdmh#pv  
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"People were shouting 'get out, get out', so we all ran out of our dorm," said a student surnamed Zhang at a university in nearby Chongqing. _;(`u!@/{  
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Xinhua reporters in many other parts of China also reported tremors. Reporters in Chengdu said they saw cracks on walls of some residential buildings in the downtown areas, but no building collapsed. IhnHNY]<g  
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The telecom networks in Chengdu and Chongqing cities broken down for a while after the quake. People complained they were unable to have phone calls on the fixed line or the mobile. xxkUu6x#  
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Many said they felt dizzy and saw the pendant lamps on their ceilings swinging back and forth. DTmv2X  
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A retiree in Leshan City of Sichuan Province said over the telephone that a wall in her garden collapsed, while a repairman in Chongqing saw the ceiling of his factory shamble and alarmed the staff, who soon left the building. In Shanghai, people were evacuated from office buildings in Hongqiao and Nanjing Road. Vij P;  

I would like to express my concerns and best wishes to all the people involved in this earthquake in Sichuan . This is a major grade earthquake with a huge destructive force . The relatively sparse population is a blessing . I  read that five school children have died and hundreds hurt when a secondary school collapsed .  I will keep my prayers up and my fingers crossed .  All the best !