Chinese military officers who had returned from northwest Qinghai Province said on Tuesday that the country's armed forces were quick to engage in the earthquake relief work in Yushu.

A total of more than 12,000 rescuers with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force (PAPF) had been deployed to the quake zone and most of them arrived in Yushu within 30 hours of the quake hitting, Major General Wang Zhenguo told a press conference held by the State Council on Tuesday in Beijing.

The first professional military rescue team set off from the PLA's Lanzhou Military Command about two hours after the quake, said the general who has been assigned chief coordinator for the military relief work in the quake zone.

According to him, the Lanzhou Military Command received the order for quake-relief deployment from the Central Military Commission and the PLA's General Staff Headquarters at about 8:00 on the morning of the 7.1-magnitude quake .

In addition, the Lanzhou Military Command, which controls the PLA's troops in Qinghai Province, also arranged military units garrisoned near the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu to engage in the relief effort.

Senior Colonel Tian Yixiang with the PLA's General Staff Headquarters said that one of the reasons for such a quick military response was due to clear communication between the PLA's headquarters and the country's seismic authority.

"The General Staff Headquarters received a report on the 7.1-magnitude quake in Yushu within 12 minutes after the disaster occurred," Tian said.

Nearly two years ago, thousands of military troops sent to the quake-hit area in Wenchuan after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck were stranded, blocked by traffic piled up in the mountainous area. Many rescuers and heavy equipment's arrival were also delayed because of air transport problems.

According to Tian, the height of the Yushu quake zone, averages 4,400 meters above sea level, and lack of transport facilities were the biggest challenge to the rescue and relief effort in Yushu.

"Compared with the situation in Wenchuan earthquake, Yushu is located on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau with cold weather. There is no railway and only one airport in Yushu.

"The road traffic is tough and the rescuers also face language problems with local residents," Tian said. More than 90 percent of the residents in Yushu speak Tibetan.

General Wang said most of the rescuers in the quake zone had suffered altitude sickness to varying degrees and two soldiers with pulmonary edema had been taken from the quake zone for treatment.

"Transportation links and communication had been restored within 24 hours after the quake, and electricity within 48 hours, with food and tent supplies, and transport for the badly wounded to Chengdu, Lanzhou and Xi'an, up and running within 72 hours", said Senior Colonel Tian.

After the 8.0-magnitude earthquake that jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province in May 2008, the State Council and the Central Military Commission have worked on improving the nation's military ability to deal with non-traditional security threats such as natural disaster relief.

The PLA's headquarters have established special organs to deal with emergency response operations for natural disasters, and to build up stockpiles of emergency aid supplies.

"The armed forces have done better and acted quicker than they did during the Wenchuan quake relief," Tian said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2010)