Ten foreign listeners of China Radio International who went on a CRI-organized trip to quake-stricken Sichuan Province in southwest China last July called to express condolence to the victims and their families.

A middle school teacher in Vietnam, Le Thi Kim Giang choked with sobs when called and said, "I still can't believe the disaster has taken so many lives of school children. What I can do now is to call for my friends and students to make donations, and I hope I could have offered more help."

Novikov Evgeny, a web-site editor from Russia, expressed his deep condolences to all the victims as well as his concern for the protection of cultural relics.

"Saving lives is undoubtedly the top priority right now. But as a foreigner who knows Sichuan well, I'm also worried about the cultural relics there. I hope relevant organizations will pay due attention to them in the post-disaster reconstruction," said Novikov.

The other eight listeners are from US, Mongolia, Germany, India, Romania, Italy, Monaco, and Iran respectively.

The listeners also said they were impressed by the quick and efficient responses the Chinese government and state leaders had made to the disaster.

The ten listeners were top-prize winners of CRI's program "Sichuan-the Hometown of Panda" last July and were invited on a group trip to the province, dubbed the 'treasure house of nature', meaning a land with rich natural resources and beautiful landscapes.

All the ten listeners described how they were deeply impressed by the beauty of Sichuan, which made the recent disaster emotionally more unacceptable to them.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)