Another temblor rattles China

A powerful aftershock hit China on Sunday, killing at least six people and heightening fears of landslides and flooding, even as more survivors of the May 12 earthquake sought to trek back to their mountain villages.

The afternoon aftershock centered in northern Sichuan province was the strongest of thousands since the initial magnitude 7.9 temblor, and damaged about 270,000 houses, the official New China News Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the aftershock at 6.

It was centered in Qingchuan County, about 95 miles northeast of the initial quake’s epicenter in Wenchuan, but it was felt across the region and even 800 miles away in Beijing, where people said office buildings swayed.

In Sichuan province, two people were confirmed dead and dozens of others were seriously injured, the news agency said. It reported today that the aftershock killed four people and seriously injured 20 others in neighboring Shaanxi province.

Earlier in the day, the Chinese government raised the death toll from the earthquake, the nation’s worst disaster in 30 years, to 62,664, with an additional 23,775 people missing.

Chinese television reported Sunday that an 80-year-old man in Mianzhu had been pulled alive from the rubble Friday. Xiao Zhihu had been trapped under a collapsed pillar of his house and survived after being fed by his wife, the report said.

In Mianyang, south of Qingchuan, the aftershock caused panic in the streets, where many people have been sleeping in tents since May 12, as in other places throughout the area.

“Everyone was running out of buildings,” said Zhang Linlei, 25, who was a few steps from the door of his apartment when the four-story complex shook and the windows above him rattled. “It’s quite scary. I will never go back to that place again,” he said of his home.

Chinese geologists have been concerned that aftershocks or heavy rains could cause the bursting of dams or overflow of so-called barrier lakes formed by the quake, which could then inundate villages.

About 90 minutes after the aftershock, scores of Chinese soldiers were mobilized at a highway toll plaza just outside the town of Beichuan, one of the areas hit hardest by the May 12 quake and under threat by a blocked river. The soldiers unloaded boxes of explosives.

A military leader at the scene would say only that the materials were for “important engineering purposes.”

Chinese media said police and soldiers were hiking toward the lake with explosives after bad weather prevented them from airlifting the materials there. Officials said they could be forced to blast through the debris to stop potential floods. People living in towns north of Beichuan also were being evacuated Sunday, Chinese television reported.

There was drizzling Sunday morning in the Beichuan area, and China’s weather bureau forecast heavy rains in parts of Sichuan province.

Concerns about the weather and more aftershocks are likely to keep people at government-run camps and slow their move back home to rebuild. In recent days, officials have exhorted people to move on if they can, as the government continues to shift its focus from rescue to resettlement and recovery.

The government wants to relieve overcrowding at camps where many of the estimated 5 million homeless quake victims have taken shelter. Many survivors desperately want to go back to their communities, eager to see loved ones and start rebuilding.

Wang Liang and Jian Xiaoyan’s 3-year-old girl awaited them in their hometown of Badi, at the western end of Beichuan County. But because of damaged roads, Wang, 31, and Jian, 25, had seven mountains to climb and about 30 miles of walking to reach their daughter, who has been under her grandmother’s care.

When the quake hit, Jian was at a meeting in Beichuan town. She survived by pushing her way out the back door of a building before it collapsed. Structures all around it fell; landslides buried parts of the town.

Jian ran for the hills, then walked and hitchhiked 50 miles to Mianyang, the nearest big city.

Her husband was closer to Badi. In his job, Wang usually enjoys a long lunch break, from noon to 2:30 p.m. The earthquake hit at 2:28 p.m. -- and he was outside resting.

For the next five days, neither knew for sure whether the other was alive. Cellphone communication lines were down. Jian went from Mianyang to Chongqing, accompanying an injured cousin who was transferred to a larger hospital. Wang made it back home and found that almost everyone in his family was accounted for -- except his wife. They cried and cried for each other.

The couple later learned from friends that the other was safe. And Thursday evening, the two finally met outside Mianyang’s Nanhu bus station after Wang made the long hike there.

They didn’t hug. They didn’t speak. They just grabbed each other’s hands.

“We wanted to cry, but we couldn’t,” Wang said. “We had cried too many times.”

On Saturday, Wang and Jian left Mianyang’s Jiuzhou stadium, where about 30,000 quake survivors are living in tents. For their journey home, camp staff gave each a bag filled with crackers, milk, water and a few bulbs of garlic, to help fight disease.

For the next two hours, the couple hopped on a bus, switched to a tiny van, then hitchhiked on a motorcycle to get to Leigu, where they camped for the night at another tent city.

Wang and Jian knew it could take two more days to reach Badi by foot. But on Sunday morning, they were ready to go. She was dressed in a green eyelet blouse, black shorts and green denim sneakers. Wang was wearing a bright red shirt and jeans.

When the morning drizzle stopped, the pair set off and reached the foot of the first mountain to climb. As they were about to go up, Wang said, some people stopped and told them about landslides and trouble ahead.

The couple walked back to the Leigu camp.

“I cannot risk my life going,” Jian said. “We’ll see tomorrow.”

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don.lee@latimes.com