Landslide recovery appraisal underway

Tian Zeming, the only known survivor so far of Sunday's huge landslide in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, was recovering on Thursday after three hours of surgery, but 75 people were still missing.

Zhu Tingfeng, deputy secretary-general of Shenzhen, said that 59 of the 75 were determined to be missing after family members contacted authorities.

Seventeen people, aged from 7 to 78, were injured in the disaster. Two of them have recovered and left the hospital, officials said. The landslide directly affected 4,630 people and 99 companies.

Zhu said that about 20 small workshops and 34 companies, with a total of about 2,830 workers, will be unable to recover buildings and equipment, which were buried or destroyed in the landslide. An additional 36 companies have been put off-limits by authorities, because the buildings, which were not buried, are in the danger zone.

The workers who were provided with temporary shelter after the landslide were transferred on Thursday to 15 local hotels that offer better living conditions. Besides concerns over basic living facilities, these workers are also concerned about their jobs.

Meanwhile, authorities promised the 36 companies whose unburied buildings were designated off-limits that they will be allowed to resume production if the facilities are found to be safe after a thorough examination.

Some companies have begun to move forward after the disaster. One of them, Wance Testing Machine Co, signed a lease for an 8,000-square-meter factory and a dormitory of 150 beds on Thursday morning. The buildings are about a 20-minute drive away from the current facilities, which were buried by 10 meters of mud and debris.

The company faces a loss of more than 80 million yuan ($12.4 million), said An Jianping, company chairman.

"We started searching for a new factory after the landslide and have looked at dozens of locations," he said. "This one was chosen because it is large enough for our production work."

Wance, which according to its website makes testing equipment that is widely used in research and development, quality analysis and quality control, hopes to resume production in March.

An, the chairman, said the company needs 40 million yuan to fully resume production - 7 million yuan of which has been raised. An investor from Guangzhou promised to provide 5 million more.

Jiang Qingli, one of the company's workers, said he'd like to continue working at Wance if it can recover. He started working in the factory in August and was on vacation when the landslide hit. grace@chinadailyhk.com