Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao lays a bouquet at the rubbles in Beichuan County to commemorate the victims of the May 12 earthquake , southwest China's Sichuan Province, on January 24, 2009. Wen Jiabao came to the quake-hit counties of Beichuan, Deyang and Wenchuan in Sichuan Province on January 24 and 25, celebrating the Spring Festival with local residents. [Xinhua]

Premier Wen Jiabao extended Lunar New Year greetings on behalf of the government and joined holiday festivities in quake-hit Sichuan Province in southwest China over the weekend.

Wen visited villagers, students, medical workers and police in Beichuan, Deyang and Wenchuan, which were among the worst-hit areas in the 8.0-magnitude quake that struck on May 12.

It was Wen's seventh visit to the province since the quake, which was centered in Wenchuan County. The earthquake left more than 69,000 people dead, 374,000 injured, 18,000 missing and millions homeless.

Wen started with a visit to Wang Chengyi's home on Saturday afternoon. Wang, a middle-aged villager of Qiang nationality, lives in a newly-built Qiang village in Beichuan County.

He told the premier that his new home was built with more than 20,000 yuan (US$2,940) of government subsidies, 50,000 yuan of interest-free loans and some of his own savings.

"It is like a dream for me to celebrate the Lunar New Year in anew house," he said. Wen wished the family a warm and happy holiday.

The premier then went to the village square to attend the traditional Qiang new year's celebration. "I hope that all the Qiang people will be happy and healthy, and the Qiang culture will thrive forever," Wen told the villagers.

He had dinner at the Beichuan Middle School and encouraged the students to work hard for the future. More than 1,000 of the school's 2,900 students and teachers died in the earthquake.

On Sunday morning, Wen visited new homes in Deyang City's Xinyu Village. He watched a lion dance and played table tennis with villagers.

Wen also visited medical workers at the Deyang City People's Hospital and extended televised greetings to police and firefighters in Sichuan.

At Dongfang Steam Turbine Works, a large state-owned enterprise, he urged employees to have confidence in Dongfang's development in spite of the quake destruction and global financial crisis.

Wen then visited Yingxiu Town in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the quake. In a community of makeshift houses, Wen went into a kitchen shared by the Wu's and two other families and joined them in preparing dinner for the Spring Festival's Eve. He even cooked a dish of Hui Guo Rou (Sauteed sliced pork with pepper) for them.

The three families of belong to Tibetans, Qiang and Han nationalities. Wen had the dinner with them and exchanged new year's greetings with them.

"You will spend this Spring Festival in the prefabricated houses. By the next Spring Festival, you would surely have moved into new houses. We will speed up the reconstruction work...so that all the quake-stricken areas will be even more beautiful than they used to be, and the people here will live a even better life," said Wen.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)