Improvements in the quake zone

Baoxing county, one of the areas worst-hit by the quake, is slowly recovering from its ordeal. So what improvements have there been over the last few days.

"It's the 6th day after the quake and this street we're in is the closest to the major temporary settlements where there are about 5000 people. We can see some of the businesses here have reopened and according to the local authorities tap water and electricity have also been restored in most parts of the county."said Liu Yang from Baoxing, Sichuan.

Half of the shelves are empty, it's a painful reminder of the earthquake, when all of the bottles crashed to the floor and smashed. The owner lost 5-thousand Yuan worth of products. She says although there are still aftershocks, she has to open the store.

Inside one of the biggest temporary settlements are people who lost their homes in the quake. They've been in the shelters for 6 days now and they're piecing their lives together.

"I think the living conditions here are OK. The main problem is that we can't stay here forever but we've got nowhere to go to, our house collapsed in the quake. " said a local villager.

Local authorities are organizing teams of people and police officers to improve the layout of the shelters, so that the space can be used for different functions.

Although it's been a few days since the quake, not very far away from the settlement you can still see reminders of what happened here during the chaos - a car crushed by a huge boulder, but life goes on for the people here.