By Zhang Haizhou and Hu Yinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-17 09:03

BEICHUAN, Sichuan - Seventy-two hours on from the deadly quake, Shen Jibin continues to wander around the devastated town center of Beichuan, searching for his wife.

All Shen knows is that she was buried when a five-story building in the town's market area collapsed. And while the chances of finding her alive are slim, he refuses to give up.

"I must see her, even if it's only her dead body," he said.

"We were married for 16 years," he said, bursting into tears.

Shen is headmaster of Renjiaping Primary School in Beichuan county. When the quake struck on Monday, he said he was in Zhuji, Zhejiang province, with a group of five visiting scholars who are taking part in six-month program.

"The program was a big opportunity for us, being from such a remote and poor mountainous county. But I flew back to Sichuan as soon as I heard Beichuan had been hit," the 40-year-old said.

He said he remembers clearly the final words his wife said to him, as he left for Zhejiang on May 2.

"She told me to make the best of the program and come back as soon as possible."

Shen said the best news he has received was hearing his 15-year-old daughter had survived the quake.

"It's a miracle that my daughter survived. She was on the ground floor of Beichuan High School. She was totally uninjured, despite being buried deep under the rubble."

He said he was sad to hear that a teacher and one pupil from his school had been killed, but relieved the vast majority of them had survived.

"Actually, all my students escaped the quake, but one sadly died on the way to hospital," he said.

With the destruction of the only road into Beichuan, a remote town surrounded by mountains, rescuers have had a difficult time getting into help the injured.

Soldiers and other rescue workers had to cross a mountain to reach the town center where Shen's wife lies buried.

Dead bodies still lie among the ruins, Shen said.

Soldiers, police and firefighters are doing all they can to help, and helicopters have been dropping food and medicines.

One thousand soldiers from the 77136 unit from Chongzhou were the first to arrive in Beichuan on Wednesday.

In just the first two days after the quake, they managed to rescue 312 people from collapsed buildings lives and evacuated more than 5,000.

A further 10,000 troops are on the outskirts of Beichuan, ready to participate in the rescue effort.