It is not usual for an electrician to light her way by mobile phone for hours in a building, let alone two. But Guo Zhengrong and her father, two electricians, did this after the May 12 earthquake struck.

Stranded in the rubble of their building in Yingxiu, epicenter of the eight-magnitude quake, which killed nearly 70,000 people and left some 18,000 missing, Guo and her father were in the dark.

Without any light and telecommunications, they used the glimmer of a mobile phone to move the bricks and floor slabs. They cleaned their way to safety almost one day later.

In early October, the winding mountain road led her back to her workplace in Yingxiu of Sichuan Province in southwest China, and Guo took up her job of electric welding again in the reconstruction of a hydropower station, which will supply electricity to many consumers, including an aluminum plant and two industry parks.

"I learned a lot of new technologies in the power station reconstruction," the 31-year-old Guo said. "Although the quake cast a shadow on my mind, I still enjoy the work here."

Barometer for reconstruction process

Guo's life moves on, so do people in the quake-hit zone. And they need electric power in their life and work. Guo is a member of an electricity supplying corps, the state grid.

"Nearly all sectors, industry, infrastructure construction and residents consumption, are in need of electricity," said Xiao Bing, deputy director of Dujiangyan Electric Power Supply Bureau.

"We are gearing up to reconstruct ourselves, expand the grid and power the reconstruction in the quake-hit areas," he added.

The quake had stopped operations of 171 transformer substation of 35 kv and above in Sichuan, 2,769 lines of 10 kv and above, and cut the power supply to 4.05 million electricity consumers.

With the power supply resumed, the State Grid in Sichuan is expanding its capacity to meet the demand of intensified reconstruction.

"Power suppliers have to lead the way for reconstruction," said Du Xiaobo, director of Deyang Electric Power Bureau.

According to him, they contributed their efforts to such areas as grid expansion, power supply to infrastructure and industry projects, and residential consumption.

Reconstruction demand chain

On the reconstruction site of the road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan in Sichuan, Feng Xuegang, general manager of the project, said they were turning the life-line of quake relief material transportation into a golden threat of opportunity for economic growth and tourism.

"We are in need of electric power as well as cement for the road building," Feng said.

One major cement supplier to the road reconstruction, the France-China joint venture Lafarge Dujiangyan Cement Company Limited, is resuming its second product line in November.

"The resumption of the line expands our power consumption," said Li Li, plant manager of the Lafarge Dujiangyan Cement Company Limited.