China Quake Transcript

KERRY O'BRIEN: It's been eight days now since China suffered its worse earthquake in decades. And still the aftershocks keep coming, terrifying distraught communities and hampering efforts to find the dead and treat the injured.

The quake's epicentre was near the town of Yingxiu in Wenchuan County. The entire area has been flattened and remains cut off from the rest of the country, the population decimated.

The ABC's China correspondent, Stephen McDonell, is one of the few journalists to reach the epicentre. He filed this story after trekking for hours through rugged terrain with a local doctor trying to get medical supplies to his people.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: This mountainous part of Sichuan province was once a pristine natural retreat for Li Yuanhong, a doctor and bushwalking enthusiast.

But this hike is not like those in the past. Dr Li is carrying medicine into the remote earthquake zone cut off from the outside world.

LI YUANHONG: Maybe I can give them medical care there, maybe there are many injured ones so I can give them some pills.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Dr Li has done this walk many times and knows the locals up ahead but he doesn't know who will be left to help.

(Li Yuanhong calls out for a response)

(to Li Yuanhong)

Doesn't look like anyone's here.

LI YUANHONG: I don't think there is people left.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: We're trying to make it to the earthquake's epicentre at Yingxiu in Wenchuan county. As we head further along the beautiful creeks and forests start giving way to mountains of rubble. Soldiers have walked in this way before.

With the road still down and foreign journalists being prevented from entering, this is one of the few ways in.

We've just walked seven hours to get through that valley. We've had to climb through countless landslides, there are no roads or paths to speak of. When we get up here there's a bit of a foul smell actually. It's a bit like the smell of death. It probably is the smell of death. Along the road here there's a Buddhist monastery, we're going to go and see if anyone's still there.

Monks have been here for hundreds of years. It was a Daoist temple before it became a Buddhist one. Everything is quiet but it's not the peaceful place it once was.

LI YUANHONG: It used to be a very beautiful place. I have been here for many times. We lose many beautiful place in the earthquake.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: We're travelling down the other side of the mountain and see the pounding which electricity infrastructure has taken.

Small villages are empty, hopefully the locals have escaped. It's still not safe to be here.

We've just felt the earth move beneath us and we're pretty worried because we're in this landslide area. It's the second aftershock we've felt today. Five days after the earthquake we're still getting these aftershocks so we better get moving.

Entire sides of mountains have fallen down. As we hurry through the valley, we see rocks constantly falling.

We get through the most dangerous area and meet a group of Chinese soldiers who are surprised to see us. They insist on carrying our bags and walking in with us.

We enter Yingxiu. It looks like a town which has been bombed. In just two minutes this industrial centre was shaken to pieces by the most powerful earthquake to hit China since the 1970s.

We've arrived here at the epicentre of the earthquake. This is a scene of utter devastation. It's a town no longer really. There's virtually not a building left standing. Now we've come across an officer here from the army who I think he wants us to leave so he's taking us off to speak to people. All I can say is look, look around, it's absolutely the whole place has been destroyed.

There are soldiers everywhere and we manage to lose the officer who wants us out.

When the earthquake hit a week ago, there were some 11,000 people here. Only 2 ,400 have been found.

The few people who remain still look like they don't know what hit them.

YINGXIU RESIDENT (translated): My grandfather, my aunt and my cousin was all buried. One was in the school, one was at home and one was working over there.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Dr Li and I speak to people who are living under tarps. They say they're okay and that the Government will look after them.

It sometimes feels like they're putting on a brave face in front of a foreign camera crew.

We see this man who has nothing and as we're filming, yet another aftershock shakes the camera.

Yingxiu is now effectively a place of martial law. There are hundreds of survivors and thousands of soldiers. Helicopters are landing and taking off all day. This is the only reliable way in and out.

At the local middle school, soldiers are using chemicals to try and prevent the spread of disease from so many bodies.

Some locals still wait outside the school, but the tools of rescue have been put down. Rescuers who first walked in and then dug through the rubble for days are exhausted.

Families look by themselves for the bodies of their loved ones. If they can find them, the soldiers will come and carry them away.

Not one building in this town can be preserved.

The only future for Yingxiu is to bulldoze everything and start from scratch. Can you imagine the fear here at the epicentre when the earthquake struck and then on the first night for the survivors, they're cut off from the outside world, they've got no electricity, they can hear cries for help from inside the rubble and they have no means of rescuing those people.

Dr Li finds a pregnant woman who survived the earthquake. He tells the woman and her mother that she can't stay here when she's so close to giving birth. He says she should get out with the military's help and come to his hospital in the regional capital.

Some people are staying here because they don't know where else to go. Others are still waiting to find the bodies of friends and families, especially the parents of hundreds of primary school students still buried in their classrooms.

Amongst such misery there are stories of great bravery. Dr Li meets a boy who's seen by locals as hero after he saved some of his classmates.

YOUNG YINGXIU BOY (translated): At that time I was running, they were running behind me. I was afraid they'd be kill. We are classmates after all, so I gave them a hand to drag them out.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Dr Li goes to find medical emergency rooms to deliver his medicine. When he get there's, the military doctors are glad to see him. They have plenty of days ahead of treating the survivors and need all the medical supplies they can get.

LI YUANHONG: Local ones love this place and their roots are here. So I think they won't leave this place and the Government should rebuild it. Rebuild the town.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: But for many this is now a town of bad memories.

At night we see people sobbing next to the river. They're burning the clothes of their dead family members. They're mostly children's clothes.

Maybe they can leave now.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And the total earthquake toll so far more than 70,000 dead.

That compelling report from China correspondent, Stephen McDonell with cameraman Rob Hill.

Reporter: Stephen McDonell