Millions of Chinese stood for three minutes today to mourn tens of thousands who died in last week's earthquake.
The moment of grief was observed across the vast country of 1.3 billion people at 2.28pm, exactly a week after the 7.9 magnitude quake that ravaged the southwestern province.
"I think the three minutes was important because it means that everyone, from the central government down to every individual, is thinking of us. Because this is worse than a war," said He Ling, a policeman in Pingtong town, which was almost totally wrecked by the earthquake.
Rescue workers observe a three-minute silence to mourn the thousands killed.
Even as the rescuers stopped work, another aftershock rattled the area and set off a small landslide from a nearby cliff. Troops and medics lined up with bowed heads and a huge Chinese flag flew from a pile of rubble.
The death toll from the quake rose to more than 34,000 today, but the final figure is expected to top 50,000.
Some 245,000 people are reported injured and a further 9,500 are thought to be still buried under the rubble in Sichuan. Most are feared dead, but some are still being pulled out alive.
Rescuers saved at least two women this morning in a house near a coal mine, Xinhua said. In Beichuan, others carried on the search themselves.
In Beijing, the country's top leaders, led by President Hu Jintao, wore white flowers on their chests and bowed in silence. Nearby, in Tiananmen Square - where pro-democracy protests were crushed by the army in 1989 - the sombre mood quickly turned into a vocal show of patriotism. About 1,000 flag-waving people marched in the vast square, singing the national anthem and chanting "Go China Go" and "Rebuild Sichuan".
Earlier it emerged that more than 200 relief workers have been buried by mudflows over the past two days.
Details of the accidents were not immediately available. It was unclear whether any of those buried had been pulled out alive.
There have been numerous rockslides from unstable mountain slopes, and blocked rivers swollen by heavy rain have threatened to burst their banks.
The country has begun three days of mourning for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province.
Public entertainment is suspended, flags are flying at half-mast.
The national flag in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing flew at half mast after a ceremony at dawn. The Olympic torch relay, currently on its domestic leg ahead of the August 8 opening in Beijing, was also suspended for three days.
A Chinese woman mourns for the earthquake victims in Beijing's Tiananmen Square
Around the country air raid sirens and car, train and ship sounded horns to "wail in grief". The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and the futures exchanges in Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Dalian will also halt trading for three minutes from 2:28 pm.
In southwestern Sichuan province's Beichuan, hard hit by the earthquake, relatives continued to travel back into the disaster zone to look for family members and see the damage for themselves.
Officials have tried to keep people from the area because of aftershocks and a build-up of water in blocked rivers.
Xinhua said the most dangerous mass of water was only about 3 km upstream from Beichuan town where rescue workers saved a man yesterday from under the remains of a hospital.
China says it expects the final death toll to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes.
Offers of help have flooded in and rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States and Singapore are assisting. Donations from home and abroad have topped 6 billion yuan.
Late on Monday, tens of thousands of panicked residents rushed into the streets of Chengdu in southwest China, alarmed by a television report that predicted another powerful earthquake would hit the region.
The pandemonium triggered by the report showed how people's nerves have been stretched to breaking point by the disaster, and aftershocks.
Cars jammed roads leading out of Chengdu, and people carrying bedding headed for open ground after hearing that another earthquake of 8-magnitude would shake the ravaged province of Sichuan overnight.