China Wails for Quake Dead

BEIJING, May 19, 2008 — -- "I've never seen anything like this before," said Wang Yong, as the honking and air horns subsided. "The sound was deafening. I could feel the vibrations."

Wang had been standing on an overpass in Beijing as the sound of thousands of car horns "wailed in grief" this afternoon as the nation paused to remember the victims of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake.

"I hope they can hear us in Sichuan," Wang told ABC News.

Today marks the first of three days of national mourning for the earthquake victims. The official death count stood today at 34,073, according to the government, and may exceed 50,000. At least 29,000 people are missing.

Xinhua, the government news agency, also confirmed today that several fatal mudslides have struck in recent days inside the quake zone, killing at least 200 rescue workers.

On Beijing's Changan Jie, the wide avenue on which Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are situated, workers flooded out of office buildings onto sidewalks and overpasses to observe a three-minute period of mourning.

Typically noisy construction sites grew quiet as traffic in major arteries came to a halt. Migrant workers lined up along the street with hard hats in hand.

But this moment of silence was hardly silent. At precisely 2:28 p.m., millions of Chinese stood still as car, ship, train and air horns howled, marking exactly one week since the earthquake shook the southwest province of Sichuan.

According to Chinese tradition, memorials on the seventh day after a person's death are especially important to observe. It is believed that the tributes on this day will help provide a better afterlife to the deceased.

"I am so sad about Sichuan but I've be seeing China's solidarity everywhere, and I think that we will get through this tragedy together," said Li Na, an office assistant who works in downtown Beijing.

Pausing for a moment and reviewing the photos she took on her camera phone, Li asked, "I wonder if this is how Americans felt after Sept. 11."

Drivers pressed their horns as others stood silently next to their cars. Long-distance buses and trains across the country stopped to observe and pay their respects.

In southern Yunnan province, buses carrying tourists pulled over and passengers stood along the road with their heads bowed.