The people in Sichuan understand full well the kind of relief operation that is now under way in Haiti. For those who were close to the epicenter in 2008, such as 20-year-old student Wang Li, they will also be able to understand the true terror of being trapped for hours by rubble.

Wang was attending class at her middle school in Xiaode when the disaster struck -- and was on the fourth floor when the building collapsed.

"The disaster in Haiti reminds me of the hours I was trapped in the dark. I was there for one day and one night," she said. "I passed out immediately when the building fell, but when I regained consciousness I could see I was buried under rock with two classmates. I knew one of them was dead. I called her name but she didn't respond. I reached out and checked her pulse, but her heart had already stopped beating."

Wang lost her left leg in the disaster and had to take the national college entrance exam in a hospital ward during her recovery. She now studies at Chongqing Electronic and Engineering College.

"As I am a student, I cannot help out the Haitians financially but I feel their agony. All I can do is to pray for them," she said.

Wei Min, 18, also lost a leg in the Sichuan earthquake. She was so moved by the kindness shown by strangers during her treatment in Chongqing, she has set her heart on a career in social work as a way to repay some of the compassion she experienced.

"With international aid, I believe Haiti will recover, although the process of recovering from an earthquake is lengthy," said Wei, who is from a poor farming family in Leigu, Beichuan county.

China sent 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million) in humanitarian aid to Haiti on Friday - days after the Red Cross of China offered US$1 million -- and has also dispatched 50 members of its National Earthquake Disaster Relief Team to help rescue people trapped under the rubble of collapsed homes and municipal buildings.

The country hopes to extend its relief and reconstruction efforts, said Shen Zhiliang, deputy head of the foreign ministry's department of Latin American and Caribbean affairs.

As well as official aid, volunteers from Sichuan are also attempting to get to the Caribbean nation to help out. Among them is Fan Xiaofan, 53, a volunteer with the Chengdu emergency team for eight years and one of 16 members looking to head to Haiti to assist the major multinational relief operation.

"If we get permits to go to Haiti, we can be ready to leave in one hour," said Fan, who helped in the post-earthquake reconstruction of Tangshan, Hebei province, in 1976.

Chen Yan, deputy director of the Sichuan emergency team, is also preparing to make the 13,000-km journey to Port-au-Prince, capital of the Caribbean country. Within just hours of hearing about the disaster, he had collected his rescue equipment and booked a flight to Beijing to join up with the National Earthquake Disaster Relief Team.

However, he was unable to travel with the team because he is not on the official payroll. He is now awaiting a visa for the United States, where he will then attempt to fly to Haiti.

"Once I arrive in New York, I will try to get a visa for Haiti. As it will take some 20 hours to arrive in Haiti via the US, I will miss the best time to save people from the rubble. But as a man from Sichuan, I must go there," said Chen, 38.

"Overseas rescue and medical teams helped Sichuan in the earthquake in 2008, and countless people in the world donated money and material to us. Sichuan people must repay that kindness by participating in the earthquake relief in Haiti."

He said the best time to help people escape the rubble alive was the first 72 hours after the disaster. As Chen will be unable to reach Haiti for some days yet, he said he would concentrate his efforts on helping to get more aid from China to Port-au-Prince.

"It is better for me to ask non-government organizations to donate when I am in Haiti, so I can tell them how serious the disaster is," he said.

Chinese people have been expressing their respect for their eight dead compatriots, four of whom were officials sent by the Ministry of Public Security to support peacekeeping efforts in Port-au-Prince, while the rest were United Nations police officers from Southwest China.

The bodies of Zhu Xiaoping, Wang Shulin, Guo Baoshan, Li Xiaoming, Zhao Huayu, Li Qin, Zhong Jianqin and He Zhihong were to arrive in China this morning on a chartered China Southern Airlines flight.

The ministry turned its website black yesterday and opened online mourning sites. So far, more than 336,200 people have presented "virtual bouquets". Major Chinese website portals also opened mourning columns, with more than 666,800 netizens presenting virtual flowers through sina.com.