Dozens of military and civilian trucks churned endlessly through this garrison town north of the Great Wall yesterday afternoon. Most were decorated with big flags and slogans such as "The People's Liberation Army shows its love to people in the disaster area" or "Chaishi power station trade union to the rescue of our brethren".
The vehicles were piled high with everything from coal and tents to rush mats and padded jackets. They were headed for the epicentre of Saturday's earthquake which killed 47 people, injured more than 11,000 and left well over 100,000 people homeless, according to officials.
The PLA sent 1,500 soldiers to provide aid in a speedy response by the Chinese authorities to the disaster, which was caused by a tremor measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale. It was felt as far away as Beijing, 190 km to the south-east, where tall buildings swayed but no one was injured.
Foreign correspondents were barred from entering the worst-affected areas of Zhangbei and Shangyi just north of this city where the Zhangjiakou AntiQuake and Disaster Relief Headquarters has been set up.
However, villages reached by driving across frozen wheatfields bore testimony to the force of the earthquake. Most of the houses were single-storey buildings with tiled roofs which cause injury rather than death when they collapse.
Doctors worked around the clock in local hospitals, mainly treating broken bones.
The biggest problem for the homeless peasants in the rocky, windswept landscape is having to cope with overnight temperatures of minus 14 to 20 degrees Celsius. In Xishunguo village, where some houses were damaged beyond repair, I found the residents preparing to spend a second night in the open, terrified of staying indoors. "I'm sleeping with my family in the woodshed," said one man.
Village children wrapped up in several layers of clothing were placed in piles of straw stacked at the edge of farmyards where fires were lit for the adults.
A reporter found a four square metre cavity in a haystack in Nanfangbei village being used as a temporary refuge for about 20 children facing a bitterly cold night outdoors. A 60-year-old woman and an 18-year-old man died from injuries in the village. Countless villagers lost precious possessions when tiles and beams fell and smashed them. Chinese television showed rows of houses which had been reduced to gable ends. In the county seat of Shangyi, houses split, walls cracked and glass shattered, a commentator said.
The earthquake was followed by more than 250 aftershocks, but the likelihood of more strong tremors has diminished, the Chinese seismological bureau said.
In Zhangjiakou a waitress in the main hotel said everyone had been very frightened by the earthquake. Many guests ran into the street. Yesterday a collection had been taken up for disaster relief. "I gave a pair of shoes and a coat," she said.