After quake, migrant worker searches for home

ZIPINGPU DAM, China - With eyes red from sleeplessness and worry, migrant worker Li Angui has only one thought in mind -- to return to his town devastated by China's earthquake.
The 43-year-old villager was working at a construction site in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province when the massive 7.9-magnitude quakestruck the region five days ago.
Since then, he has been travelling by foot and boat in a desperate bid to return to his "laojia" -- or birthplace -- in Gengda, a town surrounded by picturesque mountains, bamboo trees and home to giant pandas.
"My entire family is over there, my father, my mother, my grandmother and my wife. They're all there," Li said of his hometown about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northwest of Chengdu.
"But I don't have any news," he said in a worried voice, and carrying a plastic bag with few possessions.
"I found out that a cousin was able to leave and get to Chengdu, but I haven't been able to reach him on his mobile so I don't know what the situation is."
China estimates that more than 50,000 people have died in the country's worst natural disaster in a generation, while another 4.8 million have been left homeless.
When Li started walking to Gengda, he discovered to his dismay that the roads were blocked by landslides and other debris from the quake. He made it as far as the town of Yingxiu, where "everything, all the houses, lie in rubble."
Unable to reach his own village, he lent a hand in rescue operations, helping on Thursday to pull out two children from the remains of a school.
"They're doing well," Li said.
He reached Yingxiu by heading on a boat across the lake created by the Zipingpu Dam. But Li, who has walked roughly 200 kilometres since Monday, is now waiting to find other routes by land to make it to his own town.
Li is one of an estimated 140 million people in China who have left their homes in search of work.
While most have headed for the boomtowns of the east coast, home to bustling factories fuelling China's soaring economic growth, migration is also common between small towns and big cities elsewhere in China.
The domestic migrants sent home about 30 billion dollars in 2005, providing a major source of income to people in remote areas, according to a study last year by the International Organisation for Migration.
As for Li, he went to a meeting point for displaced people where the police and army began to make arrangements for the hundreds of people stranded and looking to get back to their villages.
Volunteers have also pitched in, helping care for people from the countryside who are now stuck in Chengdu or other major cities.
Fearing for the safety of his family, a determined Li has gathered his friends and is ready to set off again for his hometown.