国内英语新闻:Chinese celebrate a new year in quake-hit Sichuan, and hope for a better 2009

CHENGDU, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- With red lanterns hanging from the eaves, the bangs of firecrackers outside, and tables of delicious food, the Chinese people, including millions of quake survivors, observed the Lunar New Year eve in the traditional way.

    In the prefab of quake survivor Hu Suqiong, a dozen family members gathered at the table on which were traditional local foods such as preserved ham and sausage.

    "I really had not expected that I could celebrate the Spring Festival with everyone in such a good prefab room," Hu's husband Chen Ziyi toasted Sunday noon's "reunion" (tuanyuan in Chinese) meal", which take place among Chinese families on the Lunar New Year's Eve.

    The "Qinjian Family" prefab housing area where Hu Suqiong lives near the downtown of Dujiangyan City has 120,000 people. Dujiangyang was a worst-hit area in Sichuan Province in last May's devastating earthquake which left more than 80,000 people dead or missing.

    "I feel rather satisfied and thank all those who have helped me," Chen said.

    Spring Festival, which falls on Monday, is the most important holiday for Chinese. People meet relatives and eat dumplings and various delicious food. They set off firecrackers to scare off evil spirits.

    For Chinese, the year 2008 was both a painful year and a proud year in which the 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12 in Sichuan caused huge casualties and damage, and the successful Olympic Games in August made China a focus in the world.

    In Longxi Village, Wenchuan County in Sichuan, the quake epicenter, 37-year-old Chen Shixue kept his simple temporary house warm with an electric heater.

Locals select Spring Festival couplets at Kangxian County in Longnan, a quake-hit city of northwest China's Gansu Province, Jan. 25, 2009. Quake zone residents in west China had made their own ways to welcome the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Chen said the government offered construction materials and each family 2,000 yuan to help build the wind and rain-proof houses made of plastic cloth, straw beddings and wood boards.

    Some 90 out of 96 families in the village lost their homes in the quake. They built the temporary houses to live through the winter as their new permanent housing has not yet been completed.

    Before the winter came, the government also gave his family seven quilts and an electric carpet to keep warm in the winter, according to Chen.

Locals perform folk dances celebrating the Spring Festival in Pengzhou, a quake-hit city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 25, 2009. Quake zone residents in west China had made their own ways to welcome the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year

Up until now, 560,000 rural households in Sichuan have completed the construction of their new permanent housing, accounting for 44 percent of the total number. Another half a million rural families have yet to complete their new housing, according to the Sichuan government.

    "Grandma, please bless our whole family with a safe new year," another villager Chen Zhihua said before the tomb of her grandma as she mourned her on Sunday.

    The 32-year-old woman, an ethnic Qiang, said none of her relatives died in the quake but she lost her house. "We had had too much fear with the tremors last year; to pray the safety of our whole family is the best wish for the new year.