Just one day after a bulletin board was set up outside the Jiuzhou Gymnasium in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, for people to stick posters of family members missing in the wake of the earthquake, more than 400 notices have been posted.

In the Jiuzhou Gymnasium, the biggest shelter for earthquake victims in Mianyang, a new unified "relative search" card began being distributed yesterday.

The bulletin board was set up on Sunday and was soon flooded with notices searching for missing relatives. Volunteers feared the chaos may lead to the loss of crucial information so adopted the relative search cards. Information on the notices will also be broadcast on radio inside the gymnasium.

Nineteen-year-old Xia Chunju stood in front of the bulletin board yesterday afternoon, desperately searching for information on her 16-year-old brother Xia Chuanmin.

"Even if there's just a very small slice of hope, we won't give up," said Xia in tears. Xia said her brother was in a junior middle boarding school in Maofa Village, while other family members lived in Jingjiacun Village. After the earthquake hit Beichuan County, her mother was rescued after being buried under debris for 102 hours. Her father and grandfather escaped the disaster. "My brother is the only missing one in my family. We must find him no matter how difficult," said Xia.

Yang Penglin and Liu Houchen have walked between Mianyang and Beichuan every day hoping to find their parents. Yang's mother married Liu's father, in the second marriage for both, several years ago in Beichuan County.

"We feel really helpless and we pray for the safety of our parents," said Yang who posted a card yesterday.

Many Mianyang high school students have volunteered to work in the gymnasium's radio station from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM to broadcast news of the search. "My throat is painful, but helping earthquake victims look for family members is so important that I can forget the pain," said Jiang Zelong, a 12th grade student.

(Shanghai Daily May 20, 2008)