About 1,000 doctors, nurses and students extended a warm welcome with flowers and get-well-soon cards to 248 injured from Wenchuan County after a special train carrying them rolled into Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, on Wednesday morning.

"We hope to give the injured a warm feeling," Song Yu, a railway station staff said.

"A total of 1,000 beds have been reserved, and medicines and equipment worth more than 15 million yuan (US$2.14 million), as well as 250,000 ml of blood, have been set aside for them in the two designated hospitals," said Fan Daimin, chancellor of Xi'an's Fourth Military Medical University.

The medical treatment for the injured will be free, Fan said.

Guo Minghua, president of Xijing Hospital, said that her hospital has formed a special medical team that includes 150 doctors and nurses and more than 100 volunteers.

"Apart from the medical team, we have arranged for psychologists to provide counseling to the injured and their accompanying family members," Guo said.

Qian Jixian, doctor of orthopedics in Tangdu Hospital, said about 70 percent of the injured admitted to his hospital have fractured their bones. Doctors and other medical workers were busy all morning examining them.

Li, who was on the train to Xi'an, said those too seriously injured to undertake the train journey had to be left back in Sichuan for further treatment.

The train helped some of the injured to find their loved ones, too. For instance, 78-year-old farmer Mo Weicheng, who was injured in the quake, found his 80-year-old deaf sister on the train.

They lived in adjacent villages in Mianyang and were pulled from under the rubble of two buildings.

"I heard someone call my sister's name. So I approached one of the medical staff and was pleasantly surprised to find my elder sister on the train too," Mo said. He is now in the same ward as his sister.

About 215 injured were flown to Guangzhou on Wednesday and immediately transferred to the designated hospitals in Guangzhou, Dongguan and Foshan cities.

The provincial health department said more injured victims would be sent to Guangdong Province in the next few days.

(China Daily May 22, 2008)