Bittersweet feeling as quake children resume school

ZUNDAO, China (Reuters) - Children returned to school in some of China's worst quake-hit districts on Wednesday as the country struggled to put normality back into the lives of survivors nine days after the tragedy stuck.

In just one day and using prefabricated building materials, local authorities hammered together a temporary school for children living around Zundao town, near the city of Mianzhu.

"It's good to start school as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on parents. Many of our children have had a bad fright and we're here to calm them down, to give them care and counseling if necessary," said one teacher, who declined to be named.

"We will have counselors moving into the school, but I don't know how many."

Dozens of schools collapsed on May 12, killing thousands of children sitting at the desks at the time of the 7.9 magnitude quake.

Some of the grieving families took advantage of the return to school on Wednesday to hold small memorial services.

Holding framed photographs of their dead children, parents lined both sides of the driveway to Fuxin Primary School in the small town of Wufu.

More than 120 children died when the school collapsed, and on Wednesday, schoolbags and books, their pages flapping in the wind, were still strewn amongst the rubble.

In China, many families have only one child, due to the country's strict one-child policy introduced in the late 1970s when the government began to worry that resources could not keep up with the fast-growing population.

"It is a terrible blow to parents who have suddenly lost their only offspring," said Pong Chi-sing, a Hong Kong social worker based in China.

"For the Chinese, it is really terrible because there will be nobody to continue the family line and it will take a long time to rebuild a family from scratch," Pong added.

RESILIENT

On Wednesday morning, more than 700 children, most accompanied by at least one parent, streamed into the Zundao Hope School -- made up of 13 one-storey buildings.

They ran about excitedly, many holding the hands.

"It's great to be back in school. All my classmates are fine. We are very lucky. But I was very bored in the past week. My father brought me sightseeing on his motorbike," said Fang Kai, 11.

But many other children re-lived terrifying tales of being trapped under rubble, losing friends, or both.