“…Construction workers put down their tools, drivers stopped suddenly in the street, and rescuers briefly paused in their increasingly vain search for survivors amid the rubble of China’s earthquake devastation. Busy, bustling China stopped Monday to mourn the millions of victims killed or left homeless by the earthquake exactly one week earlier….”

By: Audra Ang, Henry Sanderson, Cara Anna, and Elaine Kurtenbach
Source: AP

Construction workers put down their tools, drivers stopped suddenly in the street, and rescuers briefly paused in their increasingly vain search for survivors amid the rubble of China’s earthquake devastation.

Busy, bustling China stopped Monday to mourn the millions of victims killed or left homeless by the earthquake exactly one week earlier.

Traffic froze on the highways threading through the country’s megacities including Beijing, the capital, and the relentless boom of construction paused as workers clambering over new skyscrapers joined a government-ordered three minutes of reflection.

In the quake zone, rescuers racing to free the dwindling numbers of survivors also interrupted their work to mark the exact moment the ground shook with enough power to render large parts of central Sichuan province into rubble.

The breadth of Monday’s minutes of mourning underscored the deep impact that China’s worst natural disaster in a three decades has had on its 1.3 billion people.

Thousands gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the city’s historical and governmental heart, where a huge red flag was lowered to half-staff in a solemn military ceremony.

At 2:28 p.m. (0628 GMT), the crowd fell silent and stood, many with heads bowed, while air raid sirens sounded a wail. The city’s normally choking traffic stopped dead in its tracks and millions of drivers blared their horns, adding to a cacophony that echoed across the city.

Shop and restaurant workers emptied into the streets, bowing their heads and folding their hands to join the ceremony - scenes mirrored across China.

In stricken Beichuan, rescuers in orange jumpsuits stopped their digging and stood quietly amid the rubble with eyes downcast, some cradling their white hardhats. A convoy of police cars, ambulances and other rescue vehicles let off long blasts from their horns.

“Our hearts are so heavy, so many of our compatriots are dead. As long as we try our best, we have some small hope,” said Ma Cangchuan, a rescuer in Beichuan, whose team had been working for hours to reach someone trapped under rubble.

The ceremony over, the team returned resolutely to work.

In Wenchuan county near the quake’s epicenter, more than 3,000 people, including soldiers, doctors and survivors attended a mourning ceremony amid the rubble. Some attendees wept openly as sirens wailed and the national flag was lowered to half-staff.

Monday was the start of an official three-day mourning period - the first in modern China for anything other than the death of a national leader. When sirens blared 11 years ago after the death of communist patriarch Deng Xiaoping, people mostly went about their business.

The mood in Tiananmen Square - the focus point of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 - was of empathy for fellow Chinese who were affected by the disaster.

“This is not the government organizing it,” said Wang Xu, who said he had been on the square during the student-led protests 19 years ago. “This is the first time civilians have mourned in public.”

After the period of silence, the crowd broke into apparently impromptu chanting and punching their fists in the air. “Go China,” “Go Sichuan,” “Long Live China,” people yelled. The crowd eventually broke up after police urged them to disperse.

In the commercial center of Shanghai, migrant worker Zhang Yu and other peddlers handed out small flags at “half-staff” - glued in the middle of the stick - and red heart stickers at the waterfront downtown and a nearby pedestrian mall.

“In people’s eyes we are just migrant hawkers. But we also care. We sell small things here every day, and we had a hard time deciding today whether to try to earn money or to do something for our compatriots,” he said.

“In the end, we decided that this is a special day,” he said.

Trade was suspended on China’s stock and commodities exchanges during the three-minute period. In Hong Kong, staff at the Disneyland park closed rides and halted performances.

On the Wangfujing shopping street in Beijing, people turned off their cell phones and wore white ribbons marked with the message “lovingly remember.” Construction workers stood still 23 stories above the city’s business district, in the skeletal frame of an unfinished building.

Below, the street teemed with office workers, in scenes reminiscent of a week earlier when people rushed outside when their high-rises shook with the power of the 7.9-magnitude quake some 960 miles (1,545 kilometers) away. This time, there was no nervous chatter.

Office worker Yang Fuxiu was one of many who shed tears at the mourning period. Her family’s home in Beichuan county collapsed in the quake, although no one was injured.

“This cannot make me feel better,” Yang said of the ceremony. “If it weren’t for the government, the people there would all die.”

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who spent three days touring the disaster area, and other top Communist Party leaders were shown on state television bowing their heads at a tribute in the central government compound of Zhongnanhai.

The leaders wore dark suits with a white flower - white is the traditional color of mourning in China - pinned to their chests.

The quake has produced an unprecedented level of charity among Chinese. The State Council, China’s cabinet, said donations for disaster relief had reached 10.8 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion; €970 million).

The government says the death toll from the earthquake was expected to reach 50,000, and that some 4 million dwellings were destroyed.