China's 1976 quake orphans reach out to Sichuan

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of Chinese orphaned by the devastating 1976 Tangshan earthquake have offered to take care of victims of last week's devastating tremor in Sichuan, state media said on Thursday.

And more than 300 children orphaned in the Lijiang earthquake of 1996 have donated a year's pocket money.

Zhang Youlu was nine when his parents died in the quake in Tangshan, about 180 km (110 miles) east of Beijing, which flattened the city and killed as many as 300,000 people.

"My heart ached when I saw those children who lost both parents in the quake -- babies who survived under the protection of dead parents and older children who find it hard to believe their parents are dead," Zhang told Xinhua news agency.

Nine days after the 7.9-magnitude tremor hit Sichuan province, the number of dead and missing has risen to more than 74,000, with a further 247,000 injured.

Two days after the May 12 quake, Zhang put a posting on an Internet forum calling on all Tangshan orphans to step up to help.

Hundreds of people have since answered his call with cash donations, offers of foster care and counseling at the hardest-hit areas.

Liu Yuanping, a government employee in Tangshan, said he wanted to pass on a message to all quake orphans in Sichuan. "Be strong and be brave. You'll all grow up like everyone else."

More than 300 Tangshan orphans rallied in front of the downtown monument commemorating the 1976 quake on Tuesday to mourn the dead.

In Lijiang in Yunnan province, south of Sichuan, orphans donated a total 15,174 yuan ($2,200).

"We hope the orphaned children in the earthquake can have a warm Children's Day on June 1," 16-year-old schoolgirl Xiao Yun, who together with her schoolmates was orphaned by the 7.0-strength quake that devastated Lijiang in 1996, said.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday asked rescuers in Sichuan to step up rescue efforts after a 35-year-old woman was found alive after being trapped in a tunnel in a hydropower plant construction site for nine days.

(Reporting by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers)