SUB FREEZING temperatures and seismic aftershocks were hindering rescue efforts in Lijiang yesterday as the death toll from Saturday night's earthquake reached about 250.
Doctors working in tents and outdoors battled to treat about 3,700 severely injured, while hundreds of thousands of homeless people prepared to spend their third night outdoors.
Yunnan provincial officials said that rescue teams had evacuated 22 foreign tourists stranded at Tiger Leaping Gorge, a popular day trip about 60 miles from Lijiang.
One American man was seriously injured, and another four tourists were slightly hurt.
The Lijiang valley, in southwest China, is dominated by Jade Dragon Snow mountain, a popular tourist destination.
However, there have been no reports of foreigners killed in the quake, which registered seven on the Richter scale.
Television pictures last night showed dazed villagers picking through the rubble of their homes. Provincial officials said 180,000 buildings had been destroyed. The Chinese Red Cross Society has appealed for international aid; food, warm clothing, tents and quilts are desperately needed for the impoverished area.
Temperatures have plunged much lower than normal for this time of year, dropping to minus 10 degrees Celsius at night. Sixteen of the county's 24 towns were heavily damaged, and power and water supplies have been disrupted in many areas.
In some parts of the old town of Lijiang about 10 per cent of the homes were destroyed. The town is the centre for the Naxi minority nationality, and with its cobbled streets and distinctive architecture, was one of the most picturesque places in China.
Buildings in the stricken region were further weakened as aftershocks continued. The largest tremor, in the early morning, reached six on the Richter scale. New casualties seemed to have been avoided, however, as terrified residents had already moved out of their homes.
"It doesn't matter whether people still have homes or they don't. Everyone is too scared to go inside. Everyone is living in the streets," said one official.
Many of those affected live in remote, mountain mud brick villages. Outside the towns, northwest Yunnan province is one of the poorest regions of China, and medical facilities are extremely limited.
The quake has also damaged the few reasonable roads in the area, making transportation of the injured even more difficult.
Reuter adds:
Taiwan's President yesterday appealed to people not to worry over the damage which China's military exercises were doing to the economy, saying the government could make it "rebound from the bottom".
President Lee Teng Hui's efforts at reassurance came shortly after another slump in the local share index by 0.64 per cent to 4,759.25 points, on a Hong Kong newspaper report that China was planning an intimidatory military exercise this week against Taiwan.
Taiwan's defence ministry said no unusual troop or other movements had been seen in China's coastal province of Fujian opposite Taiwan, where the paper said the exercise would be held.
Mr Lee said the more exercises Beijing conducted, the less the world would respect it.