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Sitting on a hill overlooking the ruins of Yingxiu , a small group of former residents explained why they  had returned to the abandoned town,  devastated by the earthquake more than three weeks ago.
'They're digging out the dead,' a woman said, as an excavator perched on a pile of rubble smashed concrete and twisted steel. Another said: 'I'm waiting for my younger brother.'
In other parts of the disaster zone in Sichuan province , armies of workers and soldiers are repairing damaged infrastructure and demolishing unsafe buildings.
Cities of temporary housing for displaced people have sprung up seemingly overnight.
In Yingxiu,  Wenchuan county, near the epicentre of the quake  that killed more than 69,000 people, they are still trying to find the dead, illustrating how much work remains to recover from the disaster.
Relatives dressed in camouflage army uniforms distributed by the government  had waited since  morning, occasionally crying and anxiously peering into a former karaoke establishment for evidence of three victims. An orange kitten, meowing constantly,  was among the few living things still left in the ruins.
In late afternoon, a shout  went up from a worker as  two bodies coated with grey dust  came to light on the site. The relatives of 18-year-old Lian Rui , one of the missing, sobbed  and his father  fell to the ground. 'My son, I miss you,' he cried.
A team from the local headquarters quickly arrived and one reported back to base: 'We have part of a body.'
Workers  had been appropriating body bags for  trash collection, but now they needed them for their intended use.
Nearby, workers manipulated an enormous scoop attached to the mechanical arm of another excavator, carrying out the same task on a  house. 'Gently, gently,' said one soldier, part of a detail from Aba prefecture recovering bodies.
Elsewhere, a few returned residents picked through their old homes, scavenging what they  could and carting off in baskets strapped to their backs quilts  that they claim the army had abandoned.
Yingxiu, which formerly had a population of  about 12,000, was the gateway for tourism to ethnically diverse Aba prefecture and the Wolong Nature Reserve, home of the giant panda. The town is now mostly abandoned, except for a construction company  that has put up some temporary housing for the military.
Li Ying  stood in the back of a flatbed truck next to a pile of clothes  that belonged to her dead husband, a teacher at  Xuankou Middle School, which collapsed.
'Not many came out. They haven't dug them out,' she said, estimating that only  about 100 students escaped,  of more than 1,000.
The last time she saw her husband, she cooked him a meal of spicy pork before he went off to school. After the earthquake, she camped by a stream for three days before the army evacuated residents, most by motorboat.
Among the living, the psychological damage remains. Ms Li sometimes believes she still feels the ground shake, and images of the injured schoolchildren haunt her.
She  admitted she had contemplated suicide and said she now lived only for her daughter and the hope that her husband's remains will be recovered.
Experts say recovery of the missing is an important part of the healing process for relatives. 'It is very important for the psychological recovery of survivors to have their dead relatives returned to them for culturally appropriate rites and disposal,' the World Health Organisation  has said.
Qiao Lin   gave up for  the day. After directing the excavator to her sister's home, she waited below for hours. The discovery of a wooden box with the possessions of her sister's family raised her hopes, but their bodies  were not found. 'This is hers,' she said, shifting through papers.
So the search continues. A worker on the body detail, asked how he  could stand the task, said: 'There is no other way. This is a natural disaster.' But his eyes briefly filled with tears, despite the blunt words.
At a glance
69,122 confirmed dead
17,991 missing
373,606 injured
43.68b yuan in donations received from home and abroad
SOURCE: XINHUA



Search for bodies a grim and thankless task in ruined town