| HANWANG, China, May 17 -- Suddenly the groaning steam shovel went silent. Rescue workers in orange jumpsuits swarmed over chunks of concrete debris and closed in. Carefully, deliberately and, it seemed, respectfully, they began digging into the rubble with their hands.  | DUJIANGYAN, China, June 1 -- Tears of grief and anger mixed with smoke from ritual fires lighted on the ruins of Xinjian Primary School on Sunday, as hundreds of parents commemorated the deaths of their children and pleaded for the government to punish those responsible for the building's collaps...  | MIANYANG, China, June 7 -- Access was so difficult that heavy equipment had to be airlifted by helicopter. The Chinese premier flew overhead to emphasize the urgency of the work, while more than 620 soldiers labored round-the-clock to dig a sluice to drain a large lake formed by last month's...  | CHAPING, China -- To reach this shattered, deserted mountain town, Chen Tong Quan hiked for six hours the other day, his third trip back since the earthquake to convince his mother-in-law that it was time to go.  | MIANYANG, China, May 29 -- A local Sichuan province official has withdrawn from the Olympic torch relay after acknowledging that lax government oversight of construction may have contributed to the collapse of dozens of schools that killed at least 9,000 children in this month's earthquake.  | BEIJING, May 23 -- The official New China News Agency reported the other day that people around the world are suggesting that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao deserve a Nobel Prize for their handling of the Sichuan earthquake.  | BAIYUNDONG EVACUATION POINT, China, May 30 -- Eleven thousand people were ordered to evacuate to this mountain slope in a matter of hours on Friday. With floodwaters to be diverted through the valley below, it was Shen Yuanfeng's job to make sure those from her community settled in safely.  | MIANZHU, China -- The day the earthquake hit was supposed to be a special one for Ding Yao. Her hair done up in pigtails, she was sitting in the front of a fourth-grade classroom, waiting for the teacher to hand out prizes to students who had the highest scores on a math test. She wasn't sure, bu...  | YINGXIU, China -- Grass-roots organizations and informal networks of private citizens are playing a vital role in getting supplies to rescue workers and survivors of this month's devastating earthquake in China. The government, in a notable shift, appears content to let them do so.  | The town of Yingxiu, in Wenchuan county, China, was close to the epicenter of the earthquake and was completely destroyed. The sides of the mountains used to be filled with trees, but landslides have made them mostly barren.  | CHENGDU, China, May 25 -- The strongest aftershock since a May 12 earthquake devastated parts of Sichuan province struck the area Sunday afternoon, killing two people, injuring more than 480 and spreading panic through a region just beginning to move from rescue operations to rebuilding.  | CHENGDU, China, May 25 -- The strongest aftershock since a May 12 earthquake devastated parts of Sichuan province struck the area Sunday afternoon, killing two people, injuring more than 480 and spreading panic through a region just beginning to move from rescue operations to rebuilding.
China continues recovery efforts after a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit central China on May 12, 2008, and rendered millions of people homeless.