President Hu Jintao arrived in Qinghai province Sunday to meet with those injured or displaced by last week’s devastating earthquake, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hu wrote the words, “There will be new schools. There will be new homes,” on a blackboard in a makeshift classroom where he spoke to schoolchildren. More than 1,700 people have been confirmed dead and another 256 are listed as missing in Yushu prefecture following the quake last Wednesday, which Chinese seismologists recorded as magnitude 7.1. Most of the people in Yushu are Tibetan but leaders have called for national unity. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, donations from other provinces have reached US$32.97 million and, by Sunday, 25,000 tents, 52,000 quilts and 850 tons of food had been delivered to the site. However, a request from the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, to visit quake survivors is not expected to be approved.
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