China aftershocks injure 63

In Dujiangyan, a resort area northwest of Chengdu, the first 500 units of "Happiness Home Garden" went up in less than a week. The entrance of the compound faces a busy, smog-filled street. Red banners are hung throughout the community of long flat-roofed houses made of metal and Styrofoam. The banner at the front reads: "The [Communist] Party and State Council will be with us forever."

On a muggy Tuesday afternoon, Zheng Kequan and his wife, Zhang Shuhua, moved into Block 26, Unit 5. Painted white and blue on the exterior, the room is about 150 square feet, with a window in the front and back. It has a concrete floor, an electrical outlet and a fluorescent light on the ceiling.

The unit is one-fifth the size of the couple's old home, a second-story apartment that collapsed in the quake.

Zhang, 56, would have been buried had she not been outside playing mah-jongg with her friends. Zheng, 66, a doctor, was working in the hospital at the time.

"When my house collapsed, I cried and cried," Zhang said. She and Zheng slept on a rainy street on the night after the quake, without a tent. The next day, the couple, along with their son, daughter-in-law and grandson, moved into a camp for displaced people and shared a small tent. Compared with that, "this place is great," Zhang said.

The son and daughter-in-law are in the unit next door. Their 14-year-old son, Zheng Huo, will live with his grandparents, using one of the metal bunk beds in the room. Zhang and Zheng will sleep in a separate bed, leaving room for a few other things.

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Donations to family

People had donated several chairs, as well as boxes of instant noodles, bottled water, rice, pots and pans, two large thermoses for hot water for tea, even a portable stove.

"I'll put the chairs here," Zhang said, "so when guests come they can rest."

"Everything we had is buried under the apartment, even our IDs," said Zhang, wearing an "I love China" T-shirt that a relief worker gave her. "Our government, our country and our party cares for us."

Her husband stood by and nodded. The couple said they expected to stay in this temporary housing for three years, until the government builds them a new home.

Sweat was dripping down Zhang's face as she continued to tidy up the room. After finishing, she said, they would all walk down to the end of the compound and do something they hadn't done for two weeks.

"We're going to go for a hot shower," she said.

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don.lee@latimes.com