(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-16 13:18

BEIJING - President Hu Jintao flew to quake-ravaged Sichuan Province early on Friday, more than 80 hours after the most destructive earthquake in new China killed nearly 20,000 people there.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (C) talks to his entourage about rescue operations and damages of Monday's earthquake during the flight to Sichuan from Beijing May 16, 2008. Hu said the challenge is still daunting, the task is still arduous and the time pressing. By 4:00pm Thursday, the confirmed death toll in Sichuan alone had increased to 19,509, and more than 50,000 are feared dead in the quake. [Xinhua]

This shows China's top leadership has not given up hope, although the "golden 72 hours" for survival defined by many experts is over.

"If only there is the slightest hope, we will spare no effort; if only there is one survivor in the debris, we will never give up," Premier Wen Jiabao said over the debris of a collapsed school building where hundreds were buried.

From top leaders to men in the street, from sweaty rescuers to dying victims, the entire Chinese nation is praying for miracles.

Since Monday, thousands of lives were taken and as many were saved.

My eyes blurred with tears when I saw on TV the survival of a 65-year-old man after 70 hours in the rubble of his home in Dujiangyan City near the epicenter. A People's Liberation Army soldier carried him all the way to the nearest ambulance, followed by his daughter who cried out hoarse thanks to everyone.

No one cares about the man's name, or whether he is a peasant or a professor. All we care about is that he's back in the land of the living.

The man himself might not know how dozens of PLA soldiers worked for five and a half hours in the ruins - some were bleeding themselves after they were injured by falling stones, triggered by aftershocks. But their  pains paid off when the man was saved.

The victims themselves never lost hope - when the worst was over and one was either hardened or paralyzed by the pain and horror, the drive to live would almost always prevail.

Two girls held hands in the ruins of their school and swore to each other they would never give up hope. When rescuers found them, one in a coma and the other dead, their hands were still clenched together.

At the site of a collapsed kindergarten in Beichuan County, one of the worst-hit areas near Wenchuan, a preschooler hummed a nursery rhyme when rescuers carefully removed the layers of rubble from her legs.

"I'm trying to forget the pain," she said.

Even an 18-month-old toddler screamed "save mama, save papa" from the safety of a rescuer's arms. Her parents were both dead.

Many babies were born during the quake, and most of their names reflect that. Given names like Zhensheng (born in the quake) and Yaoyao (rock) were bestowed to commemorate the significance of their births.

As the song goes, "a ray of hope flickers in the sky, a tiny star lights up way up high. All across the land dawns a brand new morn. This comes to pass when a child is born."

Miracles can always happen, where there is hope.