A shipment of 1,000 tents donated by the Hong Kong government landed in Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu yesterday as the mainland continued to struggle to provide shelter for millions of people made homeless by the May 12 earthquake. The Sichuan provincial government took delivery of the first shipment, which is part of a larger group of 2,500 tents valued at HK$3.62 million, Xinhua said. Relief shipments from Macau and Israel also landed yesterday. To date, China has received nearly 42 billion yuan (HK$47.28 billion) in funds and relief supplies from domestic and overseas donors, the government said. Macau delivered its second batch of supplies, 40 tonnes of medical supplies and other goods, by chartered plane. The Israel Defence Forces sent more than US$500,000 worth of relief supplies, including tents and blankets. The previous two shipments, valued at a total of US$1.5 million, included medical equipment and other goods. There have been media reports about the misallocation of tents and some people still living without tents in poorer, mountainous areas. The government has allocated more than 700,000 tents to the disaster zone, according to official figures. But some areas are already moving away from tents to prefabricated housing with more than 10,000 completed. On the outskirts of Mianzhu city , some of the prefabricated buildings, designed to hold at least 1,600 people, have already been built. Although the design varies slightly throughout the disaster zone, the houses have cement floors, metal frames and walls and roofs made of compressed foam. 'People can live here immediately. This kind of housing can be used for many years,' construction worker Miao Yongfeng said.
